IF 


fW'-):  '■f.-'r 


1J\ 


THE    HIGH-ROAD 
OF    EMPIRE 


THE  HIGH-ROAD 
OF  EMPIRE 

WATER-COLOUR  AND  PEN-AND-INK 
SKETCHES  IN  INDIA 

BY   A.  H.  HALLAM   MURRAY 


NEW   YORK 
E.     P.    DUTTON    AND    COMPANY 

31  WEST  TWENTY  THIRD   STREET 
1905 


Printed  by  Ballantyne  &•  Co.  Limited 
Tavistock  Street,  London 


1)3  V/^ 


TO  H.R.H.  THE  PRINCESS  OF  WALES, 
WHOSE  GRACEFUL  TASK  OF  UNITING 
THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  BY  THE  TIE 
OF  PERSONAL  AFFECTION  TO  THE 
THRONE  HAS  NOW  EXTENDED  TO 
INDIA,  THIS  VOLUME  OF  SKETCHES 
IS  HUMBLY  DEDICATED 


536 


PREFACE 

In  arranging  this  volume  of  sketches,  made  along 
the  highways  of  a  fascinating  land,  one  aim 
which  I  set  before  myself  was  to  recall  pleasant 
memories  to  those  who  have  already  fallen  under 
the  spell  of  its  potent  charm  ;  another  was  to 
awaken,  if  possible,  in  the  minds  of  others  the 
determination  to  become  better  acquainted  with 
the  great  Empire  in  the  East,  the  guardianship 
and  protection  of  which  is  at  once  our  pride  and 
our  duty.  The  appeal  which  India  makes  is  as 
many-sided  as  it  is  universal  and  irresistible,  with 
its  glorious  architecture,  its  unique  landscapes, 
its  rich  historic  associations,  and  above  all  its 
strangely  interesting  people,  whose  customs  and 
character  have  come  down  unaltered  through  the 
centuries,  and  are  now  submitted  to  the  impact 
of  new  ideas  and  new  conditions,  to  them  doubt- 
less in  great  part  incomprehensible.  The  effect 
of  this  collision  of  new  and  old,  of  East  and 
West,  is  partially  hidden  from  us  by  the  appa- 
rent indifference  of  a  calm  demeanour,  which 
at   once   conceals    the    tremendous   capacity   for 

b 


viii  PREFACE 

passion  that  glows  beneath  an  impassive  surface, 
and  heightens  the  mystery  that  surrounds  a 
fascinating  people. 

I  have,  I  hope,  given  typical  views  of  typical 
places,  but  though  not  neglecting  the  more  strik- 
ing scenes  and  buildings  which  form  the  goal 
of  every  pilgrim's  quest,  I  have  tried  to  fix  the 
attention  of  lovers  of  the  beautiful  on  the 
essentially  picturesque  side,  on  the  little  pictures 
that  unfold  themselves  at  every  turn  of  the  wheel 
of  life  in  India  and  might  well  be  overlooked  by 
the  casual  wayfarer. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  go  far  afield,  or 
to  give  an  elaborate  account  of  the  country,  and  its 
engrossing  social,  political  and  religious  problems. 
Our  experiences  were  those  of  the  ordinary 
Englishman  who  spends  a  few  months  on  the 
threshold  of  an  ancient  and  mysterious  land  and 
life,  and  we  had  no  exceptional  opportunities  or 
capacities  for  penetrating  behind  the  veil ;  but  by 
the  exercise  of  a  little  sympathetic  imagination, 
and  with  the  help  of  books  on  special  sides  of 
Indian  life  such  as  are  within  reach  of  all, 
we  tried  to  understand  such  phases  of  the  life 
as  fell  under  our  notice.  If  we  have  not  quite 
misinterpreted  that  life,  it  is  owing  to  the  kind 
friends  who,  both  in  India  and  at  home,  tried  so 
generously  to  set  our  feet  in  the  right  way. 
Amongst  them  I  am  specially  glad  of  this  oppor- 
tunity to  thank  Colonel  D.  D.  Cunningham, 
Colonel  John  Biddulph,  and  Mr.  Rowland  E. 
Prothero.     Where  we  have  gone  astray  we  must 


PREFACE  ix 

ask  the  indulgence  of  those  beneath  whose  eyes 
these  pages  may  fall. 

I  should  like  to  think  that  these  efforts  might, 
in  their  small  way,  help  to  pave  the  highway  of 
sympathetic  understanding  which  must  unite 
East  and  V/est,  if — as  all  who  realise  the  vast 
responsibilities  of  our  Indian  Empire  must  desire 
— the  unselfish  devotion  and  unstinting  self- 
sacrifice"  of  those  who  have  toiled  for  its  welfare 
are  to  be  crowned  with  success,  and  we  are 
ever,  in  Lord  Curzon's  words,  to  rule  India  by 
the  heart. 


THE  BABA  ATAL  TOWER,  AMRITSAR 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  BOMBAY  :    AN   EPITOME    OF    THE    EAST— The 
high-road  to  India — An  undying  impression  of  Oriental 
tropics — A  wonderful    panorama — Bombay    emerges — 
A  native   servant — Yacht    Club — Brilliant    colouring — 
Elephanta — Malabar  Point — Temple  of  Shiva — Parsis — 
Native  quarter — Plague        .         .         .  .  .  .  i 

II.  POONA:    THE      MAHRATTA      CAPITAL— Anglo- 
Indian  household — Caste — Parbati    Hill — Hindu    Pan- 
theon— Modern  Brahman  views — Cowley- Wantage  Mis- 
sion— Street  scenes     .         .         .         .  .  .         •       41 

III.  BIJAPUR  :  A  CITY  OF  TOMBS— Turkish  origin 
— The  Adil  Shahi  dynasty — Fine  buildings  and  tombs — 
The  Gol  Gumbaz — The  Mehtar  Mahal — A  Mahratta 
Princess — The  great  gun — Shahpur  gateway  .         .       65 

IV.  ALLAHABAD  :  THE  MEETING  OF  THE  WATERS 
— Colder  climate — An  ancient  place  of  pilgrimage — The 
Maidan — Prince  Khusru — The  Fort — The  Mela- 
Pilgrims  and  Yogis — Old  and  new        .  .  .  .87 

V.  CALCUTTA,  THE  SEAT  OF  EMPIRE— Disap- 
pointing appearance — Early  days — The  Bastis — Absence 
of  colour — India  Museum — Sakya  Muni — The  Govern- 
ment— Gardens — Old  settlements — Lady  Canning — 
The  Hooghly — Village  communities      .  .         .  .103 

VI.  BENARES  :  THE  HEART  OF  HINDUSTAN— Mar- 
vellously picturesque  situation — Temple  of  Shiva  as  the 
Poison  God — Crowded  alleys — Mai  Kali — Thugs — Dur- 
gapuja — Bathing  Ghats — Orthodox  ritual — A  Hindu's 
end — Benares  ekka     .  .  .  .  .  .129 


cii  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

VII.  LUCKNOW  AND  CAWNPORE  :  THE  MUTINY  — 
Fantastic  buildings — The  Residency — Sir  Henry  Law- 
rence— Fog — Cawnpore — The  entrenchment — The  Bibi 
Garh — Fundamental  difference  of  Hindu  and  Christian 
ideals — The  Brotherhood  Mission        .         .  147 

VIII.  AGRA:  THE  CITY  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL— 
Huge  red  sandstone  fort — Akbar — Shah  Jehan's  buildings 
— The  palace  in  the  fort — The  Taj — A  primitive 
clock — Pearl  mosque — Father  Benson — C.M.S.  Orphan- 
age at  Sikandra — Mutiny  episode — Plan  of  Moslem 
tombs — Native  life  in  the  old  town — Unexpected 
gymnastics — Mohammedan  views  on  figure-painting       .      160 

IX.  FATEHPUR  SIKRI,  THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE 
GREAT  MOGUL— A  long  avenue— Bird  life— Akbar's 
red  sandstone  city — The  mosque — The  Diwan-i-Khas — 
The  Ranch  Mahal — Vanishing  beauty — Vandalism — Pil- 
fering collectors — The  Archaeological  Survey  .  185 

X.  GWALIOR:  SINDHIA'S  CAPITAL— Rock-dwelling 
anchorites — Ten  centuries  of  Rajput  rule — Hindu  love 
of  hoarding — Dawn — A  political  saint — A  steep  ascent 
— Man  Sing  Palace — The  solemn  sacrifice,  Johar — The 
oilman's  temple — Urwahi  ravine — Jain  Tirthankers — 
Lashkar — Native  Court — Flying  foxes  .  '99 

XI.  DELHI,  THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL— From  Shah 
Jehan  to  the  Mutiny — Jumma  Musjid — Impressive  scene 
— Mohammedan  belief  about  God — The  Fort — The  last 
Moguls — Bishop  Heber — Aurangzeb's  Court — Akbar's 
lofty  aims — The  collapse — The  only  justification  for 
Imperial  rule      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .218 

XII.  THE  NEIGHBOURHOOD  OF  DELHI— Kala 
Musjid — The  first  Aryan  settlement — The  debris  of 
twenty  centuries — The  Kutub  Minar — Pathan  invaders — 
The  Mosque — Hindu  arches — Tughlakabad — Nobility 
of  office — The  Cambridge  Mission  to  Delhi — Hum- 
ayun's  Tomb — Nizamuddin,  a  Chisti  saint     .         .  243 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XIII.  AMBALLA  :  A  CANTONMENT— Distant  views  of 
snowy  Himalayas — House  of  the  Divisional  Judge — 
Camel-sowar — Milk — Polo  and  tent-pegging — Brilliantly 
coloured  crowds — An  Indian  railway-station — Native 
traffic 267 

XIV.  LAHORE:  THE  NORTHERN  GATE  — An'ang 
Pal— The  Sikhs— Guru  Govind— The  Kohinoor— The 
Fort — Jehangir — The  Badshahi  mosque — Strange  river 
scenes — Shahdera — A  network  of  narrow  streets — 
Windows  like  bees'  nests — Vizir  Khan's  mosque — Bud- 
dhist sculptures — Pigeons  and  parrots — Kim         .  .      281 

XV.  AMRITZAR:  THE  WATER  OF  LIFE— Ceremo- 
nial bathing — The  golden  temple — The  Granth — Baba 
Atal  Tower — Ghosts  of  departed  priests — Northern 
traders       .  .  .  .  .  .      '    .  .  .      305 

XVI.  THANESAR :  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE  HINDU 
RACE — In  an  ekka  along  the  Great  Trunk  Road — 
The  Jats — The  Plague  in  the  Punjab — Animal  life — 
The  Mahabarata — The  battlefield  of  India — The  town — 
The  sacred  tank — Pilgrimages — Ruined  temple — Water- 
fowl— Aboriginal  races — Process  of  transformation — 
Hindu  pani — The  rules  of  caste — Two  sides  of  native 
life 313 

XVII.  ALWAR — A  native  state — Rajputs — A  night  under 
canvas — A  walled  town — The  shrine  at  the  crossways — 
The  city  palace  and  its  picturesque  tank — Thunder- 
storm          333 

XVIII.  AJMERE— Sunrise  over  the  Ana  Sagar— Early  history 
of  Ajmere — Mahrattas  and  Pindaris — A  Rajput  Iphi- 
genia — The  great  mosque — A  Chisti  saint's  tomb — 
Akbar's  pilgrimage — Sketching  under  difficulties    .         .     343 

XIX.  JODHPUR— Through  the  desert— One  of  the  most 
noble  families  in  the  world — Citadel  of  Jodhpur — 
"  Scarlet  prints  of  a  woman's  hands  " — Rigid  marriage 
laws  of  the  pure-blooded  clans — The  city — Pig-sticking — 
Archaic  bullock  cart — "  See  that  ye  fall  not  out  by  the 
way" — The  tombs  at  Mandor — Ahmedabad  .  -363 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XX.  CEYLON.  Colombo — New  vegetation — Ascent  to 
Kandy  —  Peradeniya  —  Lady  Horton's  drive — The 
Temple  of  the  Tooth — Buddhism  in  Ceylon — A  coffee 
plantation — Sketching  in  the  Jungle — The  Pavilion — 
Galangolla — Dagobas — Gadaladenya — Three  attitudes  of 
Buddha  —  The  little  Monsoon  —  Judge  Lawrie — Mr. 
Hardinge  Cameron — Queen's  House    ....     385 

XXL  CEYLON  —  Christmas  at  Kandy  —  Alu  Vihara— 
Dambool  —  Prisoners'  fare — Sigiri  —  Nuwera  Eliya — 
Hakgalla — A  collapse  — Bishop  Copleston    .  .417 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  SOME  OF  THE  PRIN- 
CIPAL EVENTS   MENTIONED      .  .  .  .441 

INDEX 443 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

COLOURED  SKETCHES 

Reproduced  by  the  Three  Colour  Process 

T 

I  —THE  BATHING  GHATS,  BENARES.  "  The  river  bank  ' 
is  a  marvellous  sight.  The  Ghats,  in  flight  after  flight  of 
irregular  steps,  descend  a  hundred  feet  to  the  water's 
edge.  Here  and  there  the  steps  widen  out  into  terraces, 
and  on  them  are  temples  and  shrines  of  all  sorts  and 
sizes.  The  clifl"  is  crowned  by  high  houses  and  palaces, 
which  culminate  in  domes  and  slender  minarets.  Here 
and  there  a  palace  or  temple  breaks  away  from  the  main 
line,  and,  projecting  forward,  descends  with  solid  breast- 
works of  masonry  to  the  water's  edge,  where  every  variety 
of  native  craft  lies  moored  "  ...        ntie-page 

2— GIBRALTAR  FROM  THE  WEST  .... 


3— THE  CITADEL,  CAIRO,  IN  A  SAND-STORM.  '« It  is 
interesting  for  those  who  know  Cairo  to  refresh  their 
memory  of  Mohammedan  architecture  there,  in  order  to 
compare  the  style  with  that  of  similar  buildings  in  India  "        i 

4— THE  WAKE  OF  A  P.  &  0 4 

5— THE  WALKESHWAR  TEMPLE,  BOMBAY.  "The 
temple  and  tank  of  the  mystical  Shiva  in  the  village  at 
Malabar  Point  is  a  mere  combination  of  white-wash, 
water  and  flights  of  steps  with  smaller  temples  and  shrines 
dotted  around  them  and  a  few  gnarled  old  bo-trees.  They 
do  not  possess  any  antiquity,  but  like  everything  purely 
native  are  thoroughly  picturesque "         .         .         .  .24 


xvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

To/ace 
page 

6— A  DOORWAY,  POONA.  "  There  are  some  picturesque 
nooks  and  corners  in  the  city.  I  found  time  to  make  a 
drawing  of  a  quaint  doorway,  wreathed  with  a  garland  of 
marigold,  and  of  a  lazy  boy,  whose  time  appeared  to  be  of 
little  value,  sitting  on  a  projecting  ledge  swinging  his 
legs" 62 

7— THE  GOL  GUMBAZ,  BIJAPUR.  "  This  building  attracted 
me  not  on  account  of  any  special  beauty  of  detail — for  it 
is  singularly  wanting  in  ornament,  and  within  is  perfectly 
plain — but  because  of  its  vastness  and  dignity ;  and  of  the 
unique  character  of  its  dome.  It  stands  four  square  upon 
its  platform,  with  octagonal  towers  at  the  angles  seven 
storeys  high.  In  the  centre  rises  the  great  dome,  which 
constitutes  its  most  striking  feature  and  covers  a  larger 
area  than  any  other  in  the  world  "  ....     66 

8— THE  SHAHPUR  GATE,  BIJAPUR.  "  An  old  gate— a 
vista  of  minarets  in  the  opening — with  grim  battlements, 
and  long  spikes  projecting  outwards  from  the  gates  them- 
selves, to  prevent  the  elephants  of  an  enemy  from  butting 
up  against  them  and  battering  them  down  with  their 
heads ".........     82 

9— SUNSET  BEHIND  THE  IBRAHIM  ROZA,  BIJAPUR. 
"  The  great  mausoleum  of  Ibrahim  II.,  where  Aurangzeb 
lived  during  the  final  siege  of  Bijapur,  forms  with  its  ac- 
companying mosque  a  domed  group  of  great  beauty  rising 
on  a  platform  about  1 9  ft.  high ;  from  the  centre  of  what 
was  once  a  lovely  garden.  The  whole  effect  of  the  domes, 
and  the  forest  of  minarets  and  pinnacles  rising  out  of  a 
shady  grove  of  dark  trees  against  a  brilliant  evening  sky, 
was  very  striking  ........      84 

lo—A  NAMELESS  TOMB,  BIJAPUR  ....     86 

1 1— RETURNING  FROM  THE  MELA,  ALLAHABAD. 
«'  The  Maidan  is  crossed  by  flat  roads,  here  and  there 
passing  through  scattered  groups  of  trees.  In  one  of 
these  where  the  ground  was  dotted  over  with  dilapidated 
shrines  I  found  a  suitable  subject.  It  was  evening,  and  dark- 
ness was  approaching ;  the  air  was  full  of  the  red  glow  of 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

To/ace 
pose 

RETURNING  FROM  THE  M.^'Lh— continued 

the  setting  sun,  which  penetrated  the  smoke,  rising  behind  a 
neighbouring  wall,  and  the  evening  mist  with  a  hot  and 
murky  glow.  Past  me  poured  a  constant  stream  of 
rattling,  many-coloured  ekkas  returning  to  the  town  with 
noisy  devotees  from  the  Mela  "      .  ,  .  .  -92 

-A  CORNER  SHRINE  IN  A  BENARES  ALLEY.  "  The 
streets  reminded  me  of  Genoa,  but  are  far  more  picturesque, 
with  their  rich  colouring  (chiefly  a  deep  red),  overhanging 
storeys,  and  an  occasional  bridge  thrown  over  from  one 
side  of  the  street  to  the  other.  Every  empty  space  is 
occupied  by  a  fantastic  representation  of  Hindu  mythology, 
and,  besides  the  regular  temples  and  shrines  with  which 
the  town  bristles,  an  uncouth  image,  or  a  squarely-hewn 
sacred  stone,  is  set  up  at  every  vacant  corner  "         .  .134 

-THE  GHATS  BELOW  AURANGZEB'S  MOSQUE, 
BENARES.  "  Bathers  and  devotees,  in  a  continuous 
stream,  ascend  and  descend  these  steps  :  issuing  from  the 
dark  archways  and  lanes  above,  they  collect  below  on  the 
brink  of  the  water,  under  huge  straw  umbrellas ;  and  pro- 
ceed by  one  operation  to  wash  away  their  sins,  to  wash 
their  bodies,  and  their  simple  and  scanty  clothing  as  well. 
They  then  gird  themselves  in  clean  attire  ;  and  afterwards 
return  to  one  of  the  terraces  to  have  their  caste-marks 
replaced  upon  their  foreheads  by  an  official  of  the  temple ; 
he  is  provided  with  a  number  of  little  saucers  filled  with 
coloured  powders  for  the  purpose.  This  done,  they  sit 
on  a  plank  over  the  water  to  meditate  and  bask  in  the 
sunshine      .........    140 

-A  BENARES  EKKA.  "  A  picturesque  conveyance  with 
double  shafts  on  either  side,  drawn  together  on  the  top  of 
the  pony's  back  and  fastened  to  a  saddle.  The  trappings 
of  some  of  these  ekkas  are  very  gay,  and  some  have  a 
canopy  like  a  bird-cage  on  the  top.  This  '  machine ' 
holds,  besides  the  driver,  two  persons,  who  sit  sideways, 
and  hang  their  legs  over  the  wheels  "      .         .  .         .146 

-AGRA  FORT— OUTSIDE  THE  DELHI  GATE.  "  The 
Emperor  Akbar,  perhaps   one  of  the  greatest  and  most 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


AGRA  FORT— coniinmd 

liberal-minded  rulers  commemorated  by  history,  lived  here 
during  the  early  years  of  his  life.  It  is  to  him  that  we  owe 
the  double  line  of  noble  red  sandstone  walls,  70  feet  high, 
with  a  circumference  of  over  a  mile ;  they  enclose  within 
their  precincts  a  remarkable  group  of  palaces,  mosques, 
halls  of  state,  baths,  kiosques,  balconies  and  terraces  over- 
hanging the  river,  all  nobly  designed  and  exquisitely 
decorated  by  Akbar  and  his  successors,  Jehangir  and  Shah 
Jehan "        .         .         .         .         .         .  .         .         .160 

16— AGRA  FORT— INSIDE  THE  DELHI  GATE.  «'The 
gateways  of  this  grand  citadel,  especially  the  Delhi 
Gate,  are  very  imposing.  Within  the  Delhi  Gate  is  a 
second  gate,  flanked  by  two  octagonal  towers,  and  sur- 
mounted by  cupolas  "  .         .  .         .         .         .         .164 

17— THE  TAJ  FROM  THE  FORT,  AGRA— The  Fort 
extends  about  half  a  mile  along  the  right  bank  of  the 
Jumna,  which,  passing  through  a  waste  of  land,  flat,  but 
broken,  here  takes  a  sharp  bend  to  the  east.  Across  its 
shimmering  waters  and  sandy  bed  may  be  seen  the  pearly 
dome  and  the  minarets  of  the  Taj  Mahal  rising  out  of 
their  setting  of  gardens  and  trees,  which  descend  to  the 
water's  edge         .         .         .         .         .  .         .         .170 

18— THE  BAZAAR,  AGRA.  "  The  road  is  lined  with  low  one- 
storeyed  buildings — shops,  for  the  most  part,  open  to  the 
street,  supported  by  low  carved  pillars  and  sheltered  by 
awnings  of  straw.  Swarthy  people  squat  among  their 
wares,  smoking  their  hookahs.  The  roadway  is  thronged 
with  people — many  of  the  women,  carrying  brass  pitchers 
and  other  heavy  loads  upon  their  heads,  are  clad  in  bright 
colours,  with  rows  of  bangles  round  their  wrists  and  ankles  ; 
the  men,  in  less  brilliant  but  more  motley  clothes.  In  the 
distance  rises  the  great  gateway  of  the  Fort  "  .         .         .180 

i9_THE  JUMMA  MUSJID,  AGRA.  "A  grand  building  of 
red  sandstone  and  marble  :  though  built  by  Shah  Jehan  in 
1644,  it  approaches  more  nearly  to  the  earlier  vigorous 
style  of  his  predecessors "      .  .  .         .  .         .184 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


20— THE  MOSQUE  AND  GATE  OF  VICTORY, 
FATEHPUR  SIKRI.  "  The  Buland  Darwaza,  or  Gate 
of  Victory,  which  forms  the  southern  entrance  to  Akbar's 
mosque,  is  the  loftiest  building  in  Fatehpur  Sikri,  and  is 
approached  by  a  stately  flight  of  steps.  At  the  entrance  is 
the  following  inscription  in  Arabic,  '  Said  Jesus,  on  whom 
be  peace  !  the  world  is  a  bridge,  pass  over  it  but  build  no 
house  there '"      . 

2  I  -GWALIOR  FORT  BEFORE  SUNRISE.  "  The  great  rock 
of  Gwalior,  rising  from  the  plain  like  the  hulk  of  a  gigantic 
battleship,  looked  very  fine  when  I  saw  it  from  my  win- 
dow, a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  sunrise  ;  its  crowning 
walls,  palaces,  and  the  irregularities  of  its  precipitous  sides 
were  just  being  touched  by  the  dawn.  It  was  overspread 
with  a  deep  red  flush  from  the  glowing  Eastern  sky,  and 
though  the  base  beneath  was  still  in  shadow,  the  broad 
features  of  the  landscape,  the  bare  ground,  the  trees,  and 
the  partly  ruined  tombs  were  distinctly  visible  in  the  clear 
still  air.  In  the  foreground  a  square  tomb  with  a  Pathan 
dome,  gave  distance  to  the  background,  and  between  me 
and  it,  occasional  figures  noiselessly  passed  "  .  .  .   ; 

22— THE  MAN  SING  PALACE,  GWALIOR.  "An  excep- 
tional building,  growing  out  of  the  top  of  the  rock  and 
dominating  the  approach  to  the  Fort.  Semicircular  bastions 
crowned  by  cupolas  flank,  at  intervals,  the  palace  walls, 
and  along  them  run  horizontal  bands  of  blue  and  yellow 
faience,  and  sculptured  arches.  It  is  palace  and  rampart  in 
one,  and  is  certainly  the  most  originally  decorated  house  I 
ever  saw.  There  is  a  broad  ribbon  of  blue  along  the  fagade, 
with  a  bright  yellow  row  of  Brahma's  geese  upon  it,  and 
below  is  another  band  of  blue,  about  five  or  six  feet  high, 
with  conventional  vivid  green  mango  trees  growing  in  panels. 
Through  the  gateway  came  a  stately  elephant,  and  beyond 
I  could  just  get  a  glimpse  of  the  plain  far  below  "     .         .   : 

23— THE  JUMMA  MUSJID,  DELHI—AT  SUNSET.  "  This 
grand  yet  simple  building  of  Shah  Jehan  is  the  master- 
piece of  religious  architecture  in  India.  From  the  lofty 
basement,  built  round  an  outcrop  of  the  sandstone  rock, 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE  JUMMA  MVS]l'D—confmueci 

a  finely  composed  group  of  domes  and  minarets,  cupolas 
and  gateways  rises  over  a  wide-spreading  open  space, 
dotted  with  stunted  trees  sheltering  some  temporary 
native  booths  :  from  them  the  smoke  of  the  evening  fires 
pervades  the  atmosphere.  The  sun,  setting  in  the  brilliant 
cloudless  sky,  causes  the  marble  domes  silhouetted  against 
it  to  appear  quite  dark,  and  the  sharply  alternating  forms 
of  rounded  dome  and  upjutting  minaret  look  like  an 
Arabic  inscription  along  the  horizon  " 

The  sun  goes  down  as  in  a  sphere  of  gold 

Behind  the  arm  of  the  city,  which  between, 

With  all  that  length  of  domes  and  minarets, 

Athwart  the  splendour,  black  and  crooked  runs 

Like  a  Turk  verse  along  a  scimitar.  224 

24— A  STREET  IN  DELHI— LOOKING  TOWARDS  THE 
JUMMA  MUSJID.  "Wherever  the  fantastic  outline 
of  this  stately  group  of  domes  and  minarets  appears,  the 
effect  is  pleasing,  and  their  solemn  dignity  is  enhanced 
where  the  foreground  is  occupied  by  the  unimportant  but 
picturesque  buildings  of  the  native  city  "  .  .  .226 

25— THE  TOMB  OF  TUGHLAK  SHAH.  "  This  tomb  forms 
the  nucleus  of  a  miniature  fortress  in  the  centre  of  a  small 
lake,  and  is  approached  by  a  low  causeway  raised  on  arches. 
Here  repose  the  bones  of  two  of  the  warrior  kings  of  the 
Tughlak  line.  The  walls  which  enclose  them  are  of  mas- 
sive marble  and  red  sandstone  masonry  and  are  surmounted 
by  a  white  marble  dome "      .         .         .         .         .         .256 

26— A  CAMEL-SOWAR  OF  THE  ioth  BENGAL  LANCERS. 
«'  The  men  of  the  loth  Bengal  Lancers  are  mostly  Sikhs; 
they  have  blue  and  red  lance-pennons,  blue  kurta  or  long 
*  coat,  white  breeches,  red  cummerbund,  and  blue  cone- 
shaped  turban.  An  obliging  Moonshee  glorified  my 
sketch  by  writing  Shams  ud-din  Khan's  name  and  status  in 
splendid  picturesque  characters  below  it "        .  .  .272 

27— A  GATEWAY  IN  THE  BAZAAR,  LAHORE.  "A 
massive  archway — intensely  dark  in  its  cavernous  recesses 
— spanned  the  street,  and  under  it  a  jostling  crowd  passed 
and   repassed,  looking  brilliant  as  they  stepped  into  the 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


A  GATEWAY  IN  THE  ^KLKh^— continued 

sunlight  from  beneath  the  shade.  Through  the  archway  I 
could  see  one  of  the  many  coloured  minarets  of  Vizir  Khan's 
mosque  soaring  up  into  the  blue  sky ;  and  a  superb  figure 
— with  the  bearing  of  a  prince — came  striding  towards  me 
and  gave  a  central  completing  touch  to  the  scene  "  .         .  300 

-THE  GOLDEN  TEMPLE,  AMRITZAR.  «  The  pilgrim 
enters  through  a  magnificent  gateway,  to  find  him- 
self confronted  by  a  dazzling  vision,  for  the  temple  is 
covered  from  the  tops  of  its  domes  to  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  ground  with  plates  of  gilded  copper.  All  this  shim- 
mering glory  '  shines  in  the  sun  like  a  blazing  altar,'  and  is 
reflected  in  the  dancing  grey-green  water  of  the  pool — in 
the  centre  of  which  it  is  set.  A  marble  causeway  leads 
across  the  pool  to  the  island  platform  of  the  little  temple 
with  a  marble  balustrade  on  either  hand ;  and  tall  columns, 
with  gilt  lamps  surmounting  them,  rise  above  the  crowd 
of  flower-laden  pilgrims  continually  streaming  across  "      .310 

-A  TEMPLE  IN  THE  TANK  AT  THANESAE.     "This 

famous  sacred  lake  has  been  from  the  earliest  times  the 
rendezvous  of  thousands  of  devout  Hindus,  seeking  puri- 
fication by  bathing  and  prayer.  The  temples  which  once  sur- 
rounded it  have  now  fallen  into  decay,  and  are  overshadowed 
by  great  trees.  Long  flights  of  steps  lead  down  to  the 
water's  edge,  and  on  the  north  side  a  causeway  stretches 
out  into  the  lake,  where,  on  a  little  island,  stands  the  most 
perfect  temple  that  now  remains  "  .         .         .         .         -   324 

-THE  MAIN  STREET  OF  ALWAR.  "  The  Main  Street 
of  Al war,  running  straight  towards  the  mountains,  is  closed 
at  the  end  by  a  conical  and  rocky  spur,  crowned  by  the 
fort  which  dominates  the  town.  The  street  itself  is  one 
long  bazaar,  thronged  by  a  busy  bright  crowd  "  .  .   336 

-THE  ANA  SAGAR,  AJMERE.  «  Shah  Jehan  built  four 
marble  pavilions  on  the  great  bund  or  embankment 
which  dams  up  the  water  in  the  valley  of  the  river  Luni, 
and  forms  the  lake  called  the  Ana  Sagar.  One  of  these 
was  used  as  the  Commissioner's  house  at  the  time  of  my 
visit.     When  I  opened  the  window  at  daylight  and  walked 


xxii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

To/nce 

THE  ANA  ?>A.GKK— continued 

out  on  the  white  marble  balcony,  an  exquisitely  beautiful 
and  peaceful  scene  lay  before  me.  I  found  myself  over- 
hanging the  shining  levels  of  a  lovely  lake,  surrounded  by 
most  picturesque  hills,  and  with  a  glorious  flood  of  light 
from  the  rising  sun  shining  on  the  rugged  rosy  granite 
peaks  to  the  south-west "       .  .  .  .  .  -344 

32— THE  CAULDRON  AT  THE  ENTRANCE  TO  THE 
DARGAH,  AJMERE.  "The  chief  entrance  to  the 
Dargah,  from  the  crowded  street,  is  beneath  a  whitewashed 
archway  of  great  height,  on  either  side  of  which,  sur- 
rounded by  a  medley  of  arches,  miniature  cupolas,  pillars 
and  trees,  are  two  huge  iron  cauldrons  some  ten  or  fifteen 
feet  across.  On  certain  festal  occasions,  and  when  rich 
pilgrims  give  an  alms  of  ^^200  to  ;^3oo  for  the  purpose, 
these  are  filled  with  rice,  raisins,  sugar,  spices  and  ghee, 
which,  when  cooked  by  enormous  fires  lighted  beneath  the 
cauldrons,  is  doled  out  to  the  poor  pilgrims.  When  they 
are  satisfied  the  members  of  certain  privileged  families, 
swathed  in  rags  and  wadding,  are  then  allowed  to  jump 
into  the  still  hot  cauldron  and  scramble  for  the 
remains  ".........   358 

33— THE  TOMB  OF  KHWAJAH  MUIN-UD-DIN  CHISTI, 
IN  THE  DARGAH,  AJMERE.  "  The  glistening  white 
marble  tomb  of  the  saint  is  very  picturesque  ;  surrounded 
by  fine  lattice  screens.  It  is  all  dark  and  mysterious 
within,  and  rich-coloured  draperies  and  awnings  shroud 
the  holy  place,  and  shelter  the  doorways.  The  grey  misty 
mountain  peaks  made  a  beautiful  and  quiet  background  to 
this  vivid  scene,  which  was  partially  veiled  by  the  green 
branches  of  one  of  the  gnarled  and  twisted  trees  shading 
the  enclosure.  The  tree  had  dropped  out  of  the  perpen- 
dicular, and  was  supported  by  a  finely  carved  yellow 
sandstone  pillar "  .         .  ,         .         .         .         .360 

34— THE  TANK  AT  THE  BACK  OF  THE  DARGAH, 
AJMERE.  "  Deep  in  the  rocky  mountain-side  at  the 
back  of  the  Dargah  is  a  long,  narrow,  natural  cleft,  the  sides 
of  which  are  faced  with   irregular  flights   of  steep   steps 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE  TANK— coii/iinicd 

descending  to  a  deep  tank  below,  and  ascending  to  tortu- 
ous and  irregular  terraces  and  platforms  which  follow  the 
trend  of  the  rock.  Above  them  rise  the  enclosing  walls 
of  the  Dargah  and  neighbouring  buildings.  A  constant 
stream  of  women  in  dark  red  and  blue  saris  ascended  and 
descended,  with  their  waterpots  on  their  heads  "       .  .362 

35_JODHPUR— GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  FORT.  "  The 
great  rock  of  the  Fort  rises  400  feet  abruptly  out  of  the 
plain,  like  Stirling  Castle  on  a  large  scale.  At  its  feet  lies 
the  old  walled  town,  but  from  the  spot  from  which  this 
sketch  is  taken  it  is  hidden  by  a  dark  belt  of  trees — 
especially  noticeable  from  the  contrast  of  its  foliage  with 
the  barren  rock  on  one  side  and  the  desert  on  the 
other  "... 366 

36_THE  ASCENT  TO  THE  PALACE,  JODHPUR.  "  The 
road  ascends  by  zigzags  beneath  seven  gates.  Above  rises 
the  palace,  which  generations  of  Rahtore  princes  have  reared 
upon  bastions  on  the  edge  of  a  perpendicular  cliff.  Before 
me  was  a  lofty  whitewashed  gateway,  through  which  was 
passing  an  ever  moving  crowd  of  strangely  dressed  natives 
from  the  Bikaneer  desert,  laden  camels  with  their  drivers, 
groups  of  women  with  water-pots  on  their  heads,  and  an 
occasional  elephant  bearing  a  richly  dressed  visitor  to  the 
palace  " 368 

37— A  BULLOCK  CART,  JODHPUR 380 

38— A  FEEDING-PLACE  FOR  BIRDS,  AHMEDABAD. 
"  These  picturesque  objects,  somewhat  like  pigeon  cotes, 
are  characteristic  of  this  city  of  the  Jains  "       .  .  .382 

39— THE  TEMPLE  OF  THE  TOOTH,  KANDY— 
EXTERIOR.  "The  temple,  though  not  grand  or  im- 
posing, is  a  picturesque  building.  It  stands  with  its  back 
against  a  wooded  hill ;  at  its  feet  Ues  a  long  moat  or  tank, 
alive  with  tortoises,  and  crossed  by  a  small  bridge  flanked 
by  two  elephants  in  stone.  Above,  an  enclosing  battle- 
mented  wall  looks  ouc  on  a  flat  expanse  of  the  greenest 
grass  " 392 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


40— THE  TEMPLE  OF  THE  TOOTH,  KANDY— IN- 
TERIOR. "  Several  flights  of  steps  lead  to  a  sculptured 
doorway,  and  within,  an  antechapel  or  vestibule  opens  on  to 
a  small  courtyard  ;  in  its  centre  is  the  Holy  of  Holies,  con- 
taining seven  shrines  of  diminishing  size,  and  within  the 
innermost  is  the  Tooth.  The  mysterious  veiled  doorway 
of  this  sanctuary,  which  no  ordinary  mortal  may  pass, 
formed  the  centre  of  my  sketch.  The  projecting  roof  is 
supported  by  massive  wooden  pillars,  and  the  walls,  corbels 
and  ceilings  are  profusely  painted  with  brightly  coloured 
monsters  and  floral  designs  "  .....   394 

4 1  —A  STREET  SCENE  IN  KANDY.     «'  Kandy  possesses  no 

fine  buildings  or  architectural  features  worthy  of  note ;  but 
the  irregularity  of  its  low  buildings,  the  bright  awnings, 
the  deep  shadows  in  the  frontless  shops,  the  fruit  and  other 
wares,  the  overhanging  palms,  the  stray  yellow  and  crimson 
Croton  bushes,  and  above  all  the  people,  form  an  ever 
changing  melange  of  colour,  and  a  study  in  movement 
which  are  in  the  highest  degree  fascinating  "    .  .  396 

42  —THE  MOUNTAINS  FROM  PALLEKELLY.     "  Sketching 

in  the  tropics  I  found  no  easy  matter  on  account  of 
vegetation,  which  clothes  the  whole  face  of  the  world  in  the 
richest  greens.  Nothing  is  more  beautiful  to  the  eye  than 
this  verdure,  but  it  is  hard  to  paint,  and  moreover  it  was  all 
new  to  me.  I  attempted  a  sketch,  but  with  indifferent 
success,  of  the  jungle-clothed  mountains  around  Pallekelly, 
culminating  in  a  dark  peak,  about  which  the  clouds  were 
beginning  to  gather."    .......    398 

43— "A  TROPICAL  SHOWER.  It  was  very  beautiful, 
especially  from  a  height,  to  watch  the  great  rain-clouds 
blowing  up  from  the  sea  every  afternoon  and  culminating 
in  a  deluge  of  rain.  The  clear  blue  sky  of  the  morning 
gradually  becomes  flecked  with  white  woolly  clouds,  and 
shadows  travel  rapidly  over  the  sunny  green  landscape. 
On  they  come  thicker  and  thicker,  the  white  turns  to  grey, 
the  blue  sky  rapidly  disappears,  and  the  grey  gives  place  to 
black,  casting  the  whole  landscape  into  a  deep  blue  gloom  ; 
then  a  nebulous  mass,  more  dense  than  its  predecessors. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


A  TROPICAL  SHOWER— cow/mwrf 

charged  with  electricity,  sweeps  over  the  high  mountains  ; 
there  is  a  vivid  flash  of  forked  fire  and  an  almost  simul- 
taneous roar  of  thunder,  and  a  deluge  of  water  falls  in  a 
great  grey  veil  over  hill  and  vale,  and  swirling  onwards 
warns  us  that  no  time  must  be  lost  in  seeking  shelter  if  we 
wish  to  preserve  a  dry  thread  to  our  backs  "    .  .         .  408 

44— MORNING  MISTS  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE 
MAHAWELLI  GANGHA.  "A  terrace  road  winds 
through  the  forest-covered  hill  at  the  back  of  the  Pavilion, 
and  from  it  exquisite  views  open  on  to  the  valley  below 
and  away  to  the  distant  blue  mountains.  The  colouring 
of  the  landscape  in  Ceylon  seemed  to  me  far  more  intense 
than  that  in  any  other  country  I  had  seen  "     .  .         .412 

45_THE  MARKET,  COLOMBO.  "  The  subtle  litheness  of 
the  figures,  the  profusion  and  gorgeous  colours  of  the 
fruit  and  vegetables,  the  deep  shadows  and  flickering 
lights  combine  to  make  the  market  a  most  attractive  place 
for  an  artist "        .  .  .  .  •  .  •  -414 

46— THE  QUEEN'S  HOUSE,  COLOMBO.  « In  the  shady 
garden  of  Government  House  are  many  fine  trees,  the 
most  conspicuous  being  a  giant  Banyan.  Surrounding  it 
are  beautiful  green  lawns  dotted  over  with  flowering  shrubs 
and  bright  yellow  and  red  Croton  bushes.  Two  tame 
pelicans  and  a  crane  patrol  the  green  sward,  nnd,  in  their 
odd  ways,  are  a  constant  source  of  amusement  "       .  .416 

47— THE  MARTALE  HILLS 420 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


ILLUSTRATIONS    IN   THE   TEXT 


THE    BABA    ATAL    TOWER,    AMRITSAR 
TOMB    OF    TUGHLAK    SHAH 
GIBRALTAR    FROM    THE    EAST     . 

NEEDLE-LIKE    PINNACLES ADEN 

THE  MALABAR  COAST  . 
OUR  FIRST  VIEW  OF  BOMBAY 
A  NATIVE  DHOW  . 
BACK  BAY  .... 
A  BOMBAY  BULLOCK  CARRIAGE 
TOMBS  BY  THE  ROAD-SIDE 
ON  THE  WAV  TO  ELEPHANTA 
BOMB.AY  FROM  MALABAR  POINT 
ONE  OF  THE  TOWERS  OF  SILENCE 
SKETCH-PLAN  OF  TOWER  OF  SILENCE 
A  HOUSE  IN  THE  NATIVE  QUARTER 
UNDER  MALABAR  HILL  . 
IN  THE  FUNERAL  PROCESSION 
JAGGED  PINNACLES  OF  THE  GHATS 
SECTARIAL  MARKS 
THE  HINDU  PANTHEON  . 
A  DOORWAY  IN  THE  TEMPLE  OF  PARBATl 
WAITING  FOR  THE  TRAIN 
A  SMALL  MOSQUE  IN  BIJAPUR 
BY  THE  ROAD-SIDE 
PLAN  OF  THE  GOL  GUMBAZ  . 
THE  DOME  OF  THE  JUMMA  MUSJID,  BIJA 
A  WAYSIDE  TOMB  . 
A  CHILLY  MORNING 
AN    AVENUE    IN    ALLAHABAD       . 


3 

5 
7 
9 
13 
15 
16 
^7 
20 
24 
25 
3° 
39 
40 

43 
51 
55 
59 
67 

71 
73 
76 

79 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

AT  THE  MELA     ... 
BOOTHS  AT  THE  MELA  . 

ST.  Paul's  cathedral,  Calcutta 

A  TRIBUTARY  OF  THE  HOOGHLY 

THE  HOOGHLY  AT  CHINSURAH 

BARRACKPUR 

THE  HOOGHLY  ABOVE  CALCUTTA 

BOATS  ON  THE  HOOGHLY 

IN  THE  OUTSKIRTS  OF  THE  TOWN 

THE  GHATS,  BENARES   . 

COMME  9A   . 

BATHING    GHATS       . 

THE    JUMMA    MUSJID,    AGRA 

ON    THE    WALL    OF    THE    FORT 

THE    TAJ    FROM    THE    ROAD    TO    AGRA 

A    PRIMITIVE    CLOCK 

THE  JUMMA    MUSJID,    AGRA       . 
SIKANDRA        .... 

A    STREET    IN    AGRA 

A    STREET    IN    AGRA 

ONE    OF    AKBAR's    MILESTONES 

THE    ELEPHANT    GATE,    FATEHPUR    SIKRI 

THE    PRIME    minister's    HOUSE 

ON    THE    ROAD    TO    FATEHPUR  SIKRI 

ONE    OF    THE    MAHARAJA's    ELEPHANTS,    GWALIOR 

THE    URWAHI    VALLEY       . 

MAP    OF    DELHI         .  . 

LAHORE    GATE,    DELHI       . 

PLAN    OF   THE    PALACE    OF    DELHI      . 

KALAN    MUSJID,    DELHI    . 

KUTUB    MINAR,    DELHI      . 

SKETCH-PLAN    OF    HUMAYUN'S    TOMB 

OUTSIDE    THE    CANTONMENT,    AMBALLA 

FROM    THE    MAIDAN 


PAGE 

97 
99 
105 
107 
121 
123 

125 
127 

135 
140 
141 
146 
161 
163 
165 
167 
171 

175 
177 
181 

187 


216 
229 
232 
245 
249 
262 
269 
270 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


A    PERSIAN    WELL    .... 

THE    HOUSE    OF    THE    DIVISIONAL    JUDGE 

BANYAN    TREE 

THE    CROWD  .... 

A    COMPETITOR  .... 

ONE    OF    THE    CROWD 

SWEET-SELLERS        .... 

THE    FORT   AND    JUMMA    MUSJID,    LAHORE 

THE    BRIDGE    OF    BOATS    ON    THE    RAVI 

WINDOWS    LIKE    BEES'    NESTS    . 

A    STREET    WINDOW 

A    CURIOUS    COLUMN 

AN    OLD    SIKH  .... 

THE    MAIN    STREET,    ALWAR       . 

LOOKING    DOWN    ON    THE    ANA    SAGAR 

THE    commissioner's    HOUSE    . 

A    PICTURESQUE    CORNER 

A    MARWARI    TRADER 

A    COOLIE    NATIVE    DRESS 

RESTING  ..... 

A    FICUS    ELASTICA,    PERADENIVA 

THE    LAKE,    KANDY 

A    STREET    BARBER 

BY    THE    ROAD-SIDE 

A    GOVERNMENT-HOUSE    PEON  . 

ONE    OF    THE    CROWD 

A    DAGOBA    AT    KANDY       . 

A    SINHALESE    TEMPLE,    GADALADENYA 

THE    THREE    USU.^L    ASPECTS     OF    THE    SEATED    BUDDHA 

A    SHOP    IN    KANDY 

IN    COLOMBO    HARBOUR    . 

A    YOUNG    ELEPHANT    AT    KANDY 

READY    TO     START  .... 

THE    TEMPLE    AT    DAM BOOL 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE    BALCONY    IN    FRONT    OF    THE    TEMPLE 
SIGIRI    RISING    OUT    OF    THE    JUNGLE 
SIGIRI    ....... 

DEGALDURUWA  ..... 

DOORWAY    IN    THE    TEMPLE    OF    DEGALDURUWA 

ON    THE    WAY    TO    NUWERA    ELIYA      . 

LOOKING    AT    THE    TRAIN 

THE    bishop's    garden,    COLOMBO       . 

MAP    OF    INDIA,    illustrating    THE    HIGH-ROAD    OF    I- 


PAGE 
424 
427 

432 

434 
435 
439 

440 


TOMB   OF  TUGHLAK  SHAH 


%^^^H 

^^J«1 

a^^flH 

>--^^^^^^^^^H^ 

a^^^^^H 

JPjH 

*  ^^^^^^^H 

b-'H 

is 

i'% 

GIBRALTAR    FROM  THE   EAST 


CHAPTER   I 
BOMBAY 

It  was  a  change  from  a  sick-room  to  the  cabin  of 
a  P.  and  O.,  but  I  had  been  ill,  and  ''change" 
was  recommended.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Channel 
and  in  the  Bay  I  realised  that  I  was  still  a  sick 
man  ;  but  the  Equinox  was  upon  us,  and  now 
the  cause  was  exterior  to  myself — this  also  was  a 
change. 

A  short  respite  from  storm  and  tempest  revealed 
Gibraltar  in  brilliant  sunshine,  and  as  we  danced 
over  the  waves  I  sketched  the  great  Rock  for  the 
first  time,  and  passing  it,  for  it  was  too  rough  to 
land,  looked  back  upon  it  black  and  frowning 
against  a  lurid  evening  sky,  a  grim  barrier  to  the 
inland  sea.  As  night  fell  the  sea  rose,  and  the 
great  ship  seemed  to  tremble  and  quiver  at  the 
impact  of  the  waves ;  but  better  times  were  com- 
ing, and  at  Malta  I  enjoyed  a  respite  from  the 


2  BOMBAY 

crowded  ship,  and  spent  a  pleasant  day  there  with 
friends. 

A  kindfriend  had  borne  mecompanyso  far,  but  at 
Brindisi  we  parted,  and  there  I  was  joined  by  the 
companion  of  my  journey.  We  sailed  on  a  summer 
sea  through  the  Ionian  Islands,  passed  Crete  in  the 
early  morning,  pink  with  the  rising  sun,  and 
in  due  course  were  off  the  coast  of  Egypt.  It  is  in- 
teresting for  those  who  know  Cairo  to  refresh  their 
memories  of  Mohammedan  architecture  there,  in 
order  to  compare  them  with  the  buildings  of  India 
which  they  are  about  to  see.  The  Canal  affords 
the  unique  experience  of  a  sail  through  the  desert 
varied  by  the  transit  of  the  Bitter  Lakes  and  en- 
livened by  the  sight  of  strings  of  camels  and  flights 
of  pink  and  white  flamingoes.  On  entering  the 
dark  blue  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  the  aspect  of 
everything  changes.  On  the  right  beyond  Suez 
extends  against  an  evening  sky  a  deep  purple 
range  of  mountains,  commencing  with  the  grim 
serrated  GebelAttakah.  The  shore  wherever  visible 
is  sterile  to  a  degree,  and  not  a  vestige  of  vegeta- 
tion is  to  be  seen.  Throughout  our  course  of 
thirteen  hundred  miles  to  the  Straits  of  Bab-el- 
Mandeb,  coral  reefs  run  along  the  coast  in  broken 
lines  parallel  to  the  shore,  leaving  a  channel  from 
two  to  three  miles  wide,  which,  in  the  absence  of 
lighthouses  and  the  prevalence  of  treacherous  cross 
currents,  must  require  some  skill  to  navigate.  The 
masts  of  six  vessels  which  we  saw  appearing  above 
the  water  at  Perim  suggest  the  fact  that  that  skill 
is  sometimes  wanting.  But  I  am  anticipating.  In 


ADEN  3 

due  course  we  came  within  sight  of  the  distant 
range  of  Mount  Sinai,  then  the  weather  began  to 
get  hotter,  punkahs  were  put  up,  and  passengers 
turned  out  in  all  their  thinnest  clothes.  We  pass 
the  Straits,  and  soon  come  in  sight  of  the  strange 


NEEDLE-LIKE   PINNACLES 


mountains  with  needle-like  pinnacles,  which  are 
passed  just  before  Aden  is  reached.  There  a  short 
halt  amongst  a  swarm  of  naked  gesticulating 
natives  in  canoes,  shouting  "  habadive,"  "  haba- 
dive,"  which,  being  translated,  means  "  throw  a 
shining  coin  into  the  water  and  I  will  dive  for  it." 
Then  the  Indian  Ocean,  flying  fishes,  thunder- 
clouds, and  the  land  of  Inde. 

It  is  contrast,  and  the  presence  of  the  unexpected 


4  BOMBAY 

that  constitute  the  picturesque,  and  that  charm 
the  aesthetic  eye  and  mind.  Of  all  contrasts  few 
can  be  greater  or  more  striking  than  that  of  West 
and  East,  and  few  transitions  can  be  productive 
of  greater  surprises  than  that  made  in  stepping 
from  the  monotony  of  a  steamship  into  the  midst 
of  the  tropics. 

The  novelty  of  life  at  sea,  so  romantic  in  theory 
(especially  in  the  old  days  of  sails),  soon  wears  off, 
and  as  the  days  roll  up  into  weeks,  it  gives  place 
to  ennui ;  life  becomes  tedious  and  irksome,  and 
the  least  thin  line  of  distant  coast  at  once  arouses 
a  longing  to  be  again  on  shore,  no  matter  where. 
Within,  are  the  clock-work  routine,  the  ceaseless 
motion,  the  cramped  space,  the  close  proximity  to 
one's  fellow-passengers,  the  constant  tramp  of 
feet — the  passing  and  repassing,  and  again  re- 
passing of  walkers  on  the  deck — the  faint  oily 
smell  which  even  the  best  kept  steamers  are  not 
without,  and  which  seems  to  infect  the  uninterest- 
ing food,  so  that  it  all  tastes  of  the  ship  ;  without, 
are  only  the  limitless  horizon  and  the  sameness  of 
the  ever-changing  sea.  In  these  conditions  and 
surroundings,  the  monotonous  days  pass,  and  we 
sleep  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  rocking  waves 
and  the  measured  thud  of  the  engine. 

One  morning  early  in  April  we  became  gradually 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  we  were  no  longer  rock- 
ing, that  the  engine  was  at  rest ;  then  a  terrific 
noise  overhead  announced  the  dropping  of  the 
anchor,  and  we  realised  that  we  were  once  more  in 
port.  We  had  reached  Colombo. 


FIRST    IMPRESSIONS  5 

How  much  can  be  revealed  in  the  vignette  seen 
through  a  port-hole  ?  Looking  out,  we  had  our 
first  glimpse  of  a  new  world !  It  was  unmistakable  ! 
Behind  a  horizontal  bar  of  cocoa-nut  palms,  to  the 
East,  the  sun  was  rising  in  true  oriental  splendour, 
reflected  on  a  calm  sheet  of  glowing  water.  Dusky 
figures,  in  many  coloured  garments,  were  dis- 
tinguishable along  the  shore  and  in  amongst  the 
trees,  and  as  the  light  began  to  penetrate  the 
foliage,  the  low  roofs  of  native  huts  appeared,  and 
a  thin  wreath  of  blue  smoke  betokening  the  prepa- 


THE  MALABAR  COAST 


ration  of  the  morning  meal.  Here  and  there  a 
tower  or  spire  broke  the  outline  of  the  waving 
palms.  Close  by,  on  the  water,  a  noisy,  grey-necked 
crow  alighted  to  .dispute  with  his  fellow  the  pos- 
session of  some  floating  treasure,  for  he  too  must 
have  his  breakfast. 

There  was  something  in  the  simple  scene,  in  the 
very  air,  and  above  all  in  the  smell — that  strange 
and  all-pervading  smell  of  everything  aromatic — 
which  seized  on  the  imagination  and  indelibly 
stamped  itself  upon  the  mind.  This  was  the  East, 
the  glorious,  mysterious  East.  How  different  from 
anything  expected,  and  how  far  more  enthralling. 


6  BOMBAY 

And  yet  what  was  it  that  we  have  seen  ?  A  belt  of 
trees,  a  sheet  of  still  water,  some  distant  figures 
and  a  pair  of  crows.  It  was  nothing  in  itself,  but 
it  was  enough  :  it  had  created  an  undying  and 
fascinating  impression  of  the  Oriental  tropics. 

Having  come  so  far,  I  cannot  any  longer  con- 
ceal the  fact  that  we  were  not  then  on  our  way  to 
India  at  all,  but  were  in  an  Australian  Liner,  and 
bound  for  the  south.  It  is  not,  however,  my  inten- 
tion to  recount  our  experiences  at  the  Antipodes, 
nor,  since  chronology  is  of  little  importance,  in 
this  connection,  will  I  loiter  in  Ceylon ;  but  leav- 
ing that  island  for  description  later  on,  I  will 
begin  my  story  with  the  end  of  the  return  voyage, 
and  skirting  the  Malabar  coast,  proceed  to 
Bombay. 

Our  first  sight  of  India  was  a  wonderful  pano- 
rama of  the  Western  Ghats,  with  their  fine  rugged 
outline,  broken  by  isolated,  precipitous  and  almost 
inaccessible  peaks,  silhouetted  against  the  sunrise 
glow.  That  great  barrier-range  runs  south  for 
nearly  800  miles,  following  the  line  of  the  sea 
coast.  It  rises  sometimes  in  splendid  precipices, 
sheer  out  of  the  water,  sometimes  abruptly  in 
terraces,  beyond  a  strip  of  flat  green  and  fertile 
low-lying  land,  to  an  extreme  height  of  nearly 
7000  feet. 

The  weather  was  glorious,  and  the  sea  quite 
calm.  A  peaceful  day  ended  in  a  grand  sunset ; 
about  9  P.M.  I  saw  a  curious  meteor,  which  looked 
so  strangely  near  that  at  first  I  thought  it  was  a 
mast-head    light   not   half  a    mile   away.     Very 


BOMBAY   EMERGES  7 

gradually  it  moved  downward,  and  then  van- 
ished. 

The  coastline  became  gradually  clearer,  and  two 
days  afterwards  numbers  of  small  brown  lateen 
sails  appeared  and  clumps  of  fishermen's  stakes, 
like  Venetian /<3;//,  standing  up  out  of  the  sea.  At 
last  Bombay  emerged  mistily  above  the  horizon 
about  2.30  P.M.  on  January  11,  and  by  4.30  we 
were  steaming  slowly  into  harbour. 

The  beautiful  Bay,  studded  with  green  islands 


OUR   FIRST  VIEW  OF  BOMBAY 


and  jutting  precipices,  unfolded  itself  before  us, 
with  its  background  of  strange,  quaintly-shaped 
hills,  amongst  which  the  Bawa-Malang  catches 
the  eye  with  its  peculiar  cylindrical  and  bottle- 
shaped  peak  crowned  with  a  ruined  fort. 

The  town  of  Bombay  stands  at  the  southern 
end  of  one  of  the  greenest  of  these  low  narrow 
islands,  which  lie  as  a  much-indented,  protecting 
barrier  across  the  estuary  of  a  river  imprisoning 
an  arm  of  the  sea,  from  five  to  seven  miles  wide, 
along  the  mainland,  and  so  forming  one  of  the 
finest  harbours  in  the  world.  On  the  sea  side  of 
the  island  is  Back  Bay,  a  shallow  basin  two  miles 
broad,  with  Colaba  Point  between  it  and  the 
harbour,  and  a  ridge  ending  in  Malabar  Point  on 


8  BOMBAY 

the  sea  side.  The  Fort  is  the  nucleus  of  the  city, 
and  stands  on  the  slightly-raised  strip  of  land 
between  Back  Bay  and  the  harbour,  the  entrance 
to  which  it  commands. 

Bombay  Island  was  occupied  by  the  Portuguese 
as  early  as  1532,  and,  coming  to  Charles  II.  as 
part  of  the  dower  of  Catherine  of  Braganza,  was 
leased  to  the  East  India  Company  for;f  10  a  year. 
The  Portuguese,  however,  still  remained  near 
neighbours  and  rivals  on  the  Island  of  Salsette,and 
blocked  the  "  open-door  "  to  trade  with  the  Empire 
of  the  East.  In  spite  of  this,  Bombay  soon  became 
the  most  important  of  the  Company's  possessions. 
The  first  Mahratta  War  led  to  the  permanent  occu- 
pation by  the  English  of  all  the  Islands  in  the 
Bay  of  Bombay,  where  the  commerce  and  industry 
of  a  large  district  had  taken  refuge  from  Mahratta 
oppression.  Before  1830  Bombay  had  become  the 
link  between  the  East  and  the  West.  The  natural 
barrier  that  separates  the  coast  from  the  tableland 
of  the  Deccan  was  first  broken  down  in  1838  by 
a  road  over  the  Bhor  Ghat.  Some  thirty  years 
later  the  railway  was  taken  the  same  way  on  to 
the  Deccan  plateau  by  a  brilliant  feat  of  engi- 
neering skill.  The  Suez  Canal  of  course  completed 
the  connection  with  the  West. 

When  the  American  War  cut  off  the  supply  of 
cotton  to  Lancashire,  the  importance  of  Bombay 
increased  immensely,  and,  after  various  ups  and 
downs  of  prosperity,  it  now  rivals  Calcutta  as  the 
commercial  capital  of  India.  The  natural  aptitude 
of  the  Natives  for  textile  work,  and  their  reputa- 


BOMBAY    HARBOUR  9 

tion  for  turning  out  unglazed,  genuine  fabrics 
seem  to  be  driving  out  the  lower  class  of  English 
cotton  goods.  The  growth  of  these  factories  in- 
creased the  already  swarming  population  of  this 
densely  crowded  Eastern  city,  but  the  plague  has 
considerably  diminished  the  export  trade  of  late 


A    NATIVE   DHOW 


years,  and  has  greatly  reduced  the  population  of 
Bombay. 

It  is  useless  to  try  to  describe  the  magnificent 
scene,  which  now  lay  before  us,  as  we  came  to 
anchor  amongst  the  crowds  of  various  kinds  of 
craft,  from  both  the  East  and  West,  which  formed 
a  most  animated  foreground.  Some  of  the  native 
boats,  with  high  poops  like  sixteenth-century 
galleys,  masts  raking  the  wrong  way,  and  three- 
cornered  sails,  were  very  quaintly  picturesque. 
There  were  also  troop-ships  and  men-of-war  of 


lo  BOMBAY 

H.M.  East  India  Squadron,  a  Russian  war-ship, 
mail-steamers  and  merchantmen  discharging  and 
receiving  cargo,  countless  small  boats,  ships- 
dinghies,  native  bunder-boats  and  Karachis  plying 
busily  to  and  fro  with  their  burden  of  brilliantly 
clad  passengers. 

We  were  soon  boarded  by  a  swarming  crowd 
of  jabbering,  shouting,  gesticulating  natives,  and 
a  peon  from  King  and  Co.  brought  us  letters  from 
many  kind  and  hospitable  Indian  friends,  with 
proposals  for  the  mapping-out  of  our  Indian  tour. 
A  native  servant  is  indispensable  for  travelling  in 
India,  so  I  had  written  beforehand  to  King  and  Co., 
to  look  out  for  one  for  me.  I  had  visions  of  a  red 
turban  and  spotless  white  clothes,  so  my  feelings 
may  be  imagined  when  avillanous-looking  figure — 
to  all  appearance  a  veritable  cut-throat — in  shabby 
clothes  and  an  ancient  round  hat  boarded  the 
steamer  and  told  me  he  was  my  servant.  He 
was  a  Portuguese  from  Goa  and  said  to  be  honest, 
which  was  consoling,  and  as  I  was  told  he  had  white 
jackets  and  trousers  in  the  background,  that  would 
appear  when  wegot  to  Government  House,  Itookhim 
for  a  time.  He  seemed  to  know  his  way  about,but  I 
felt  rather  doubtful  about  engaging  him  as  a  body 
slave  for  three  months.  The  matter  settled  itself 
before  long  by  his  hearing  of  a  permanent  place  as 
butler  at  Karachi,  to  which  I  lethimgo;  and  I  took  on 
John  Lobo,  a  nice-looking  young  fellow,  also  a  "Goa 
Boy,"  as  I  was  told  it  was  difficult  to  get  an  Indian, 
speaking  English.  He  was  active  and  intelligent, 
though  not  very  methodical,  and  served  me  well. 


LANDING  II 

The  disembarkation  arrangements  are  not  alto- 
gether a  credit  to  the  P.  and  O.  Co.,  and  it  was  not 
until  six  o'clock  that,  in  a  very  badly  managed 
launch, we  finally  succeeded  in  landing  ourselves  at 
the  Apollo  Bunder  Quay  below  the  Yacht  Club, 
through  a  perfect  pandemonium  of  vociferous 
coolies. 

The  sun  was  setting  in  a  deep  red  glow,  and  its 
level  rays  lighted  up  motley  groups  of  brilliantly 
dressed  natives — who  blocked  the  quay,  as  they 
squatted  at  their  ease,  watching  the  busy  scene — 
and  the  brightly  painted  bullock  carts  with  gaily- 
clad  occupants — drawn  by  mouse-coloured  oxen 
with  shining  satin  skins,  and  little  humps — which 
threaded  their  way  amongst  the  traffic. 

We  put  up  for  a  few  days — before  going  to 
Government  House,  Malabar  Point — at  a  queer 
hotel,  where  the  rats  were  very  noisy  at  nights,  the 
cockroaches  numerous  and  of  abnormal  propor- 
tions, and  the  food  so  bad  that  we  were  glad  of 
the  possibility  of  getting  meals  at  the  Yacht 
Club,  a  delightful,  cheery  place,  with  a  lovely  view 
over  a  neat  terraced  garden,  full  of  brilliant  flower- 
beds, to  the  harbour  and  hills  beyond.  It  is  built 
for  shade  and  to  catch  every  breeze.  I  never 
appreciated  a  draught  thoroughly  before ;  not 
that  I  found  the  heat  intolerable — I  never  felt  a 
pleasanterormoreexquisiteatmosphere.  Itwas just 
right,  with  cool  mornings  and  evenings  and  very 
warm  sun  mid-day.  The  heat  is  neither  so  intense 
nor  so  damp  as  in  Colombo,  and  the  balmy  breezes 
prevented  our  feeling  overpowered  by  the  hot  sun. 


12  BOMBAY 

I  lost  no  time  in  getting  near  the  Native  quarter 
of  the  town,  and  made  my  way  soon  after  daybreak 
next  day,  past  the  Victoria  Railway  Station,  a 
wonderfully  proportioned  building  in  the  Byzan- 
tine style,  of  dark  grey  and  brown  stone,  to  the 
Crawford  Market.  There  I  made  a  futile  attempt  at 
sketching  in  a  dense  and  motley  crowd.  The 
weather  was  brilliant  and  cloudless  and  the  market 
was  dazzling  and  thronged  with  all  kinds  of  people 
in  every  variety  of  dress  and  undress  ;  all  buying 
and  selling,  with  a  deafening  hubbub,  as  the 
traders  squatted  in  the  centre  of  their  stalls 
amongst  their  wares. 

I  was  not  prepared  for  the  brilliancy  of  the 
colouring — scarlet  and  purple,  crimson,  green  and 
white,  all  set  off  and  harmonised  delightfully  by  the 
variously  shaded  bronze  and  dusky  limbs,  the 
brown  faces  and  great  black  eyes  of  the  many  dif- 
ferent races  thronging  the  busy  scene.  The  strange 
fruits  and  vegetables  too  were  nearly  all  new  to  us. 
We  saw  quantities  of  red  bananas ;  gourds  of  many 
shapes  and  shades,  yellow  and  green  and  golden  ; 
heaped-up  grapes,  white  and  black,  from  Aurunga- 
bad  ;  oranges  from  Nagpur,  and  the  pummelo,  a 
shaddock,  like  a  huge  orange.  The  mango  of 
Mazagon,  famous  for  its  delicate  flavour,  was  not 
yet  in  season,  but  there  was  a  strange  vegetable,  the 
fruit  of  the  egg-plant,*  of  the  marrow  type,  with  a 
shiny  black  surface,  like  the  material  of  the  Parsi 
hat,  called  "  baingan."  There  were  also  piles  of 
"  pan  "  or  betel  leaves,  which,  spread  with  lime 
{chuna)  and  wrapped  round  slices  of  the  fruit  of  the 

*  Solanum  melongena. 


CRAWFORD    MARKET  13 

areca  palm,  are  responsible  for  the  red  lips  and 
black  teeth  one  sees  so  perpetually.  The  flower- 
stalls  were  very  quaint,  for  the  jasmine,  roses  and 
other  flowers  were  all  ruthlessly  picked  to  pieces, 
and  threaded,  flower  by  flower,  into  ropes  and 
chains,  strung  with  silver  thread  and  tinsel  into  the 
strangest  sweet-smelling  garlands  and  festoons. 


These  were  sold  by  weight,  to  be  worn  round  neck 
or  head,  or  offered  in  the  temples. 

Outside  the  fruit  and  vegetable  market  is  a 
garden  shaded  by  large-leaved,  dusky  trees,  over- 
hung with  wreaths  of  the  flaming  crimson 
bougainvillea,  of  "a  colour  that  seems  full  of  light, 
that  no  paint  or  dye  could  imitate."  Here  is  the 
bird-market — alive  with  screeching  flame-coloured 
and  blue  macaws  and  parrots  of  every  description. 
The  whole  scene  was  as  alluringly  picturesque  as 
anything  one  could  wish  to  see. 

We  drove,  in  the  afternoon,  round  Back  Bay 
to  Malabar  Point.  The  Queen's  Road  by  the  shore 
was  thronged  with  brightly  clothed  natives  and  with 
carriages,  mostly  occupied  by  Parsis.  Looking 
back  we  had  charming  views  of  the  fine  public 


14  BOMBAY 

buildings  and  towers  of  the  modern  town.  The 
ground  upon  which  the  European  town  stands 
has  been  reclaimed — this  was  mainly,  I  believe, 
the  work  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere — and,  for  imposing 
buildings,  it  quite  beat  any  of  the  Australian  towns 
I  had  lately  left.  All  this  stately  line  of  reddish- 
brown  stone  buildings,  some  of  them  built  by 
munificent  Parsis,  has  been  erected  within  the 
last  fifty  years,  and  they  stand  isolated  in  green 
squares  and  gardens,  with  flowering  shrubs  of 
vivid  hue  between  fine  broad  streets  glowing  with 
rich  and  harmonious  colour.  The  clock  tower  of 
the  University  and  Hall  and  the  Library  were 
designed  by  Street.  The  Municipal  Buildings  are, 
I  believe,  the  work  of  F.  W.  Stevens,  the  man  of 
the  G.I. P.,  who  built  the  fine  Victoria  Station. 
The  whole  has  quite  the  dignified  appearance  of  a 
university  town,  though  one  can  hardly  connect 
an  academic  atmosphere  with  surroundings  of 
such  riotous  colour. 

After  passing  many  villas  and  crossing  the  rail- 
way, we  reached  a  road,  close  to  the  sea,  which 
reminded  us  of  the  Riviera :  the  rocky  heights 
were  terraced  to  the  top  with  bungalow  and  villa 
gardens,  rich  in  tropical  vegetation ;  tall,  slender 
and  graceful  palms  raise  their  feathery  heads  above 
round-topped  trees,  and  aloes  and  datura  hide  the 
great  rocky  boulders.  From  here  there  is  one  of 
the  finest  views  in  the  world  ;  and  all  is  bathed  in 
an  atmosphere  of  light  and  fanned  by  refreshing 
and  balmy  breezes. 

We  passed  the  sumptuous  villa  of  a  rich  Parsi, 


MALABAR    HILL  15 

who  appeared  to  be  entertaining  his  friends,  for 
outside  his  gate  were  many  carriages  and  smart 
brightly-painted  bullock-chariots,  with  panels 
adorned  with  painted  garlands  of  roses  and  other 
ornaments.  Then  we  went  on  to  Malabar  Point  to 
write  our  name  in  the  book  at  Government  House, 
which  is  quite  at  the  Point  and  within  sound  of  the 


A   BOMBAY   BULLOCK-CARRIAGE 


waves.  I  stopped  five  minutes  outside  the  gate  to 
make  a  sketch  of  three  quaint  little  whitewashed 
tombs  under  the  trees  by  the  road  side,  which 
rather  pleased  me.  At  Malabar  Hill  we  called  on 
the  Bishop,  and  also  on  the  wife  of  Col.  Burn- 
Murdoch,  R.E.,  who  had  kindly  written  to  ask  us 
to  go  to  Elephanta  with  her. 

All  my  life,  since  I  first  heard  my  old  friend  Mr. 
Fergusson  talk  about  the  caves  at  Elephanta,  I 


i6 


BOMBAY 


have  had  a  great  desire  to  see  them,  but,  having 
lately  heard  them  much  depreciated,  we  very  nearly 
gave  up  the  expedition  ;  I  am  glad  we  did  not,  as 
they  were  delightfully  interesting.  Owing  to  a 
stupid  blunder,  however,  the  Sappers'  launch  did 
not  turn  up  till  long  after  the  appointed  time  ; 
then  the  tide  being  against  us,  and  low  into  the 


TOMBS   BY   THE  ROAD   SIDE 


bargain,  we  had  to  tranship  to  a  small  boat.  How- 
ever, we  had  a  delightful  hour  and  a  half's  sail 
eastwards  across  the  Bay,  through  a  crowd  of 
picturesque  shipping,  and  then,  in  the  isle-sprinkled 
lagoon,  we  had  the  waters  all  to  ourselves.  At  5.30 
we  reached  the  landing-place,  a  slippery  pier  of 
isolated  larva-blocks  leading  to  the  foot  of  a  long 
flight  of  stonesteps  that  mount  the  hill  to  thecaves, 
amongst  palm-trees  and  creepers  above.  Alas,  by 
the  time  we  reached  the  top  the  sun  was  already 
beginning  to  set.  As  we  had  to  dine  at  eight  at  Go- 
vernment House — a  four-mile  drive  beyond  Bom- 
bay,in  the  opposite  direction — it  maybe  imagined 


ELEPHANTA  17 

we  had  not  much  time  to  give  to  the  temple,  and  I 
did  not  even  get  a  slight  sketch  of  it. 

The  rock-cut  temple  at  Dambool,*  in  Ceylon, 
which  we  had  seen  lately,  is  more  interesting,  for 
it  is  still  in  use,  whereas  this  has  been  given  over 
for  three  centuries  to  bats  and  owls  and  sight- 
seers. But  these  temples  stretch  farther  into  the 
side  of  the  mountain,  and  show  much  more  art  in 
construction  and  ornamentation.  It  is  supposed 
that  they  date  from  the  eighth  or  ninth  century. 


^3^:' 


ON   THE   WAY  TO   ELEPHANTA 


when  the  Brahmanic  revival  began  which  finally 
triumphed  over  Buddhism,  and  succeeded  in 
driving  that  once  supreme  and  purer  faith  almost 
entirely  out  of  the  Peninsula. 

The  entrance  of  the  caves  is  divided  into  three, 
by  two  carved  and  somewhat  mutilated  pillars,  cut 
out  of  the  rock.  These  pillars  are  repeated  inwards, 
forming  a  large  hall  of  three  aisles,  and  at  the 
further  end  is  a  colossal  figure,  about  15  ft.  high, 
with  three  great  calm  faces  representing  the  triad 
of  gods,  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Shiva:  one  of  the 
hands  holds  Vishnu's  lotus-flower,  and  round 
one  arm  is  twisted  a  cobra.  The  Portuguese  spared 

*  See  chapter  xxi. 


i8  BOMBAY 

this  figure  when  their  cannon  battered  down  so 
much  of  the  temple. 

There  are  openings  on  either  side  of  this  cave  on 
the  right  into  a  smaller  temple,  and  left  to  an  open 
space,  facing  a  third  temple,  guarded  on  either  side 
by  two  conventional  lions :  before  this  is  a  circular 
platform  where  stood,  doubtless,  in  old  days  the 
stone  Nandi  or  sacred  bull,  so  often  kneeling  at  the 
entrance  of  a  temple  of  Shiva.  Most  of  the  gods  of 
the  Hindu  Pantheon  seem  to  be  represented  here, 
Brahma  with  four  faces,  Vishnu  and  his  lotus,  Shiva 
with  his  bull  and  lingam,  and  the  cup  from  which 
flow  the  three  sacred  life-giving  streams,  Ganges, 
Jumna,  and  Saraswati,  believed  to  unite  at  Alla- 
habad. Parvati,  Shiva's  bride,  his  son  Ganesh,the 
elephant-headed  god  of  good  luck,  Chandra  the 
moon-god,  Indra  on  his  elephant,  and  Bhairava 
an  inferior  form  of  Shiva  with  rosary  of  skulls. 
The  entrances  are  kept  by  gigantic  dwarpals  or 
doorkeepers.  The  stone  is  of  dark  weather-beaten 
grey,  but  bears  traces  of  having  been  painted. 

The  whole  place,  amongst  the  volcanic  rocks, 
covered  with  vegetation,  is  wonderfully  pictur- 
esque, and  I  longed  for  an  opportunity  to  sketch  it. 
As  we  steamed  back  across  the  lagoon  we  had  a 
most  delightful  distant  view  of  the  city  with  the 
deep  vermilion  glow  of  evening  behind  it,  and  the 
graceful  palms  and  steep  hill-sides  standing  up  in 
the  foreground  against  the  sky. 

We  had  despatched  a  messenger  to  the  A.D.C. 
at  Government  House  to  warn  him  that  we  had 
been  detained  and  might  be  late.  A  capital  little 


MALABAR   POINT  19 

pair  of  ponies,  in  alight  carriage,  got  us  to  Malabar 
Point  in  twenty  minutes  time,  and  we  found  a  very 
pleasant  party  at  dinner,  including  Col.  F.  Rhodes, 
Capt.  St.  Leger  Jervois,  Sir  John  Gladstone,  Sir  R. 
Beauchamp  and  a  Prince  and  Princess  Sherbatov, 
who  were  leaving  next  day  for  Kandy.  It  was 
arranged  that  we  should  shift  our  quarters  next 
day  to  Government  House  till  we  left  for  Poona. 

The  real  Government  House  is  seven  miles  off  at 
Parell,  in  a  lovely  garden,  but  though  a  fine  house 
it  is  rather  avoided,  as  it  has  a  bad  reputation  from 
a  sanitary  point  of  view,  and  Sir  Jas.  Fergusson's 
second  wife  died  there  of  fever. 

We  spent  five  very  pleasant  days  at  Malabar 
Point,  the  assemblage  of  bungalows,  which  forms 
Government  House.  They  stand  sheltered  by  palms 
on  the  black  basalt  rocks,  and  all  face  the  sea, 
which  is  quite  close  on  three  sides.  Verandahs  con- 
nect them  with  the  great  central  bungalow,  an 
immense  long  room, — partitioned  with  lattice-like 
carved  wooden  doors  into  a  drawing-room,  dining- 
room  and  hall, — with  a  delightful  deep  verandah  all 
round.  Next  to  it  come  offices  and  then  our  bunga- 
low, standing  on  a  knoll  sloping  down  about  fifty 
feet  into  the  sea.  Opposite  the  main  entrance  is 
H.  E.'s  bungalow,  and  close  by  others  for  guests, 
doctor  and  A.D.C.s.  There  are  tents  scattered 
about  for  servants  and  guards,  then  comes  the 
stable,  and  the  native  village  is  beyond — it  is  quite 
a  little  colony  in  fact.  My  set  of  rooms,  like  the  rest, 
included  a  large  room  some  twenty-seven  feet 
square,  with  a  dressing-room,  a  bath-room  and  a 


20  BOMBAY 

writing-room.  The  rooms  are  all  arranged  for  cool- 
ness and  shade,  and  court  the  breeze,  with  doors 
made  like  Venetian  blinds  ;  they  are  high  and  airy 
and  open  into  charming,  seductive,  deep  verandahs. 
The  wonderful  silence  of  nature  seemed  to  have 
subdued  voices  and  movements  to  a  uniformly  low 
and  gentle  key  ;  the  only  sound  to  be  heard  was  the 
ripple  of  the  waves  breaking  gently  on  the  beach 
below  us,  occasionally  broken  by  the  harsh  voice  of 


BOMBAY  FROM  MALABAR   POINT 


oneofthemanycrowswho,  with  consummate  impu- 
dence, will  even  enter  the  dining-room  to  carry  off  a 
bone  or  other  dainty  from  a  plate.  Across  the  blue 
bay  and  the  little  white-sailed  boats  dancing  over 
the  waves,  we  saw  the  towers  and  spires  of  Bom- 
bay, on  the  further  horn,  about  one-and-a-half 
miles  distant  as  the  crow  flies — or  one  might  say 
the  "vulture  flies,"  for  we  have  many  here — "but 
that  is  another  story." 

All  the  arrangements  in  a  large  oriental  manage, 
such  as  this,  are  a  quaint  mixture  of  splendour  and 
simplicity.  The  whole  place  swarms  with  wonder- 


SPLENDOUR   AND   SIMPLICITY       21 

ful  khidmatgars  in  flaming  scarlet  and  gold  livery, 
and  the  body-guard  is  beautiful  in  an  old-fashioned 
uniform  and  blue  and  gold  turban,  with  lance  and 
pennon.  At  dinner  the  band  played,  and  we  were 
surrounded  by  twelve  or  fourteen  men,  who  each 
fanned  us  with  a  gigantic  painted  palm-leaf,  and  we 
drove  out  with  four  horses  and  postilions,  with 
other  marks  of  state.  But  on  the  other  hand  to  get 
to  our  own  rooms  from  the  dining-room  we  had  to 
pass  through  an  end  of  the  verandah,  screened  off 
to  serve  as  a  pantry,  and  down  a  covered  walk,  off 
which  were  little  rooms  serving  as  kitchens,  scul- 
lery, and  so  on.  Glimpses  might  be  had,  through 
the  open  doors,  of  quaint  domestic  scenes.  I  used  to 
watch  with  some  amusement  groups  of  dusky 
figures  seated  on  the  floor,  each  slowly  and  deli- 
berately wiping  a  cup  or  plate.  This  ceremony 
appeared  to  occupy  the  greater  part  of  the  interval 
between  meals ;  then  the  crockery  was  packed  away 
in  a  big  basket,  to  be  produced  for  the  next  meal. 

We  were  lucky  in  coming  in  for  a  great  party 
on  the  evening  of  January  15,  which  was  a  very 
brilliant  and  interesting  sight.  There  were  as 
many  natives,  Parsis  and  Hindus,  as  Europeans; 
all  soldiers  and  sailors,  including  the  Russians 
from  the  men-of-war  in  the  harbour,  were  in 
uniform.  Numbers  of  the  most  important  natives 
were  invited  to  dinner  beforehand,  I  believe  rather 
to  the  disgust  of  the  English.  This  went  so  far 
that  the  lady  seated  at  dinner  next  one  of  the  best 
known  and  most  public-spirited  of  the  Parsis  had 
the  bad  taste  to  refuse  to  speak  to  him,  and  kept 


22  BOMBAY 

her  back  toward  him  all  the  time  !  No  wonder, 
foreigners  who  have  had  opportunities  of  ascertain- 
ing the  mind  of  the  natives  tell  us  that,  whilst 
acknowledging  that  we  rule  with  kindness  and 
justice  and  have  given  India  peace,  the  natives 
have  no  affection  for  us,  and  think  we  lack  the 
''true  sympathy,  without  which  weakness  can 
never  pardon  superior  strength." 

The  dresses  of  the  Hindus  on  this  occasion 
were  most  beautiful.  The  men  were  in  vermilion 
and  gold  turbans,  and  soft  white  clothes  with  a 
touch  of  gold  embroidery,  and,  on  the  top  of  the 
ears  perhaps,  an  ear-ring  with  a  bunch  of  emeralds 
and  pearls.  The  Parsi  women  were  lovely ; 
gracefully  clad  in  all  manner  of  beautiful  silks 
and  soft  brocades,  pale  pink,  mauve,  orange, 
or  lemon-yellow,  with  a  touch  of  gold  or  silver 
along  the  outer  edge.  They  drape  a  long  strip  of 
soft  silk  around  them  as  a  petticoat,  the  end  is  then 
passed  over  their  heads,  above  the  white  veil  which 
confines  their  hair.  They  are  often  very  pretty,  and 
some  of  them  wore  such  fine  jewels  as  quite  to 
eclipse  those  of  all  the  English  women.  The  rows 
of  emeralds,  pearls,  and  diamonds  were  especially 
splendid.  Some  of  the  native  ladies  had  orna- 
ments in  the  left  side  of  the  nose,  a  custom  which 
is  as  unbecoming  as  it  must  be  inconvenient, 
especially  when  the  jewel  falls  down  to  or  over  the 
mouth. 

One  morning,  before  breakfast,  I  took  a  walk  in 
the  neighbourhood,  down  the  oppressively  hot 
avenue  and  then  round  to  the  further  (west)  side  of 


A   TEMPLE    OF   SHIVA  23 

the  hill.  Here,  in  the  native  village,  I  came  upon  a 
delightfully  picturesque  tank,  about  one  hundred 
yards  long,  with  steps,  descending  to  the  water  on 
all  sides,  and  above,  all  manner  of  quaint  build- 
ings. This  is  "  Walkeshivar,"  a  temple  of  the 
mystical  Shiva,  the  giver  of  newlife  through  death, 
and  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  sacred  places  in 
thispartof India.  Here, the  lingam,Shiva'semblem, 
is  reverenced  with  lustrations  of  holy  water  from 
the  Ganges  and  offerings  of  betel  leaves.  The  wor- 
shippers approaching  the  shrine,  ring  the  bells, 
which  are  placed  in  three  long  rows  above  it. 
Though  I  do  not  suppose  the  temple  and  tank 
possess  any  antiquity,  still,  like  everything  else 
purely  native,  they  are  thoroughly  picturesque, 
though  it  is  mere  whitewash,  water,  and  flights  of 
steps  which  combine  to  give  this  result. 

Towers,  small  temples,  and  shrines — all  most 
attractive  in  shape  and  colour — were  grouped  in 
charming  complexity,  with  here  and  there  amongst 
the  buildings  a  gnarled  old  bo-tree.  There  were 
several  of  the  usual  tall  octagonal  pillars  or  towers 
for  lights — which  the  uninitiated  might  take  for 
attenuated  pigeon-houses — perforated,  on  all  sides 
and  all  the  way  up,  with  small  apertures  to  hold  the 
little  ''  battis  "  or  earthenware  jars  of  cocoanut  oil 
which  illuminate  the  sacred  spot.  From  the  top  of 
the  temple  flew  a  bright  red  flag.  On  one  side  of 
the  tank  the  buildings  descend  to  the  sea,  on  the 
other  they  mount  to  the  top  of  the  ridge.  Here 
for  the  first  time  I  saw  Yogis,  by  their  brick 
shrines  under  the  trees,  at  the  waterside,  who  from 


24  BOMBAY 

their  revolting  appearance,  I  imagine,  must  con- 
sider themselves  very  religious  : — such  shocks  of 
matted  hair  had  they,  and  bodies  streaked  and 
smeared  with  chalk  and  paint.  They  sat,  quite 
unconscious  of  their  surroundings,  telling  the 
rosary  of  beads  which,  with  their  hands,  was 
hidden  from  sight,  and  repeating  Shiva's  one  thou- 
sand and  eight  names  over  and  over  again.  Not  so 


ONE   OF  THE  TOWERS   OF   SILENCE 


many  years  ago  there  was,  I  am  told,  a  Yogi  here, 
who  lived  for  twenty  years  in  a  stone  box,  in  which 
he  could  neither  sit  nor  stand  nor  lie  full  length. 
The  throngs  of  Hindus,  coming  away,  all  seemed 
to  have  their  foreheads  marked  with  quaint  signs, 
which  I  discovered  indicated  their  caste.  The 
brown  wrinkled  forehead  of  the  old  priest  was  also 
barred  with  three  bold  white  lines. 

Another  day  I  drove  to  the  Parsi  Towers  of 
Silence  on  the  top  of  the  hill — the  most  beautiful 
site  in  the  neighbourhood.  A  funeral  procession 


THE    TOWERS    OF    SILENCE 


25 


was  coming  down  the  steps  from  the  tower  gardens 
as  I  arrived  ;  so  I  had  to  wait  a  few  minutes  until 
,some  hundred  Parsis  had  passed,  walking  in  a 
string,  in  prosaic  white  trousers,  long  white  coats, 
with  American  cloth  cow-hoof-shaped  hats. 

It  was  rather  a  gruesome  sight  to  see  the  vul- 
tures hovering  above  one's  head  and  flapping  their 
huge  wings.  There  are 
three  or  four  Towers  of 
Silenceof  various  sizes, 
I  shouldguess  from  ten 
toseventyyards  across ; 
they  are  cylindrical  and 
of  masonry,  like  white- 
washed gasometers,  and 
the  plan  of  them  is  this: 
inside  they  are  open  to 
the  air  and  divided  into 
numerous  wedge-shaped  compartments  in  three 
tiers — (A)  the  outside  tier  for  the  men's,  (B)  the 
centre  for  the  women's,  (C)  the  inner  one  for 
children's  corpses.  Before  the  bodies  are  placed  in 
these  cells  they  are  laid  out  on  a  stone  and  a  dog  is 
brought  up  to  them.  If  he  licks  the  face  of  the 
corpse  it  is  supposed  to  show  that  the  soul  has  the 
entrSeio  Paradise,  if  otherwise  that  it  is  condemned. 
Rows  of  vultures,  with  here  and  there  a  crow,  some- 
times perched  on  a  vulture's  back,  stands  stolidly 
along  the  rims  of  the  towers,  waiting.  After  about 
five  hours  their  work  is  done,  and  nothing  remains 
but  bones,  which  are  placed  in  a  great  central  pit, 
where  they  turn  to  dust,  and  when  the  monsoon 


SKETCH-PLAN    OF  TOWER   OF  SILENCE 


26  BOMBAY 

comes  the  rain  washes  into  this  well,  and  the  water, 
after  being  filtered,  finds  its  way  to  the  sea.  They 
say  the  most  up-to-date  of  the  Parsis  are  rather 
ashamed  of  this  custom  of  theirs,  and  would  like  it 
abolished,  but  it  was  their  wonderful  veneration  for 
the  sanctity  of  the  elements  that  led  to  their  devis- 
ing this  elaborate  scheme  by  which  they  avoid  the 
contamination  of  earth,  fire,  or  water,  for  that 
would  expose  them  to  the  attack  of  the  Evil  Spirit, 
to  whose  machinations  they  attribute  all  disease 
and  evil. 

The  Parsis,  on  whose  industry,  level-headed 
commercial  enterprise  and  public  spirit  the  flourish- 
ing condition  of  Bombay  is  based,  have  only  been 
in  the  island  since  the  days  of  British  rule,  and  owe 
their  prosperity  entirely  to  our  protection.  The 
Mohammedans  in  India  always  persecuted  them 
bitterly,  treated  them  as  pariahs,  and  confined  them 
to  the  country  districts.  They  had  fled  from  Persia 
in  consequence  of  the  persecution  of  KhaliphOmar, 
642  A.D.,  and  were  allowed,  by  a  Hindu  prince,  to 
settle  in  a  district  of  Western  India,  on  condition 
that  they  abstained  from  cow-killing  and  adopted 
a  modification  of  Hindu  dress.  Their  curious  head- 
dress seems  to  have  originated  in  the  tall  Persian 
cap,  cut  down  and  bent :  to  this  they  cling  tena- 
ciously, but  in  many  other  respects  they  have 
adopted  European  dress  and  customs,  though  no 
people  or  caste  has  supplied  so  few  converts  to 
Christianity.  They  are  not  idolaters,  though  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  Hindu  superstition  has  corrupted 
the  purity  of  their  worship,  and  to  remove  this  an 


PARSIS  27 

effort  after  reform,  and  return  to  the  original  mono- 
theistic faith  was  made  in  1852. 

The  Zoroastrian  faith  teaches  them  belief  in  a 
Supreme  God,  who  is  Infinite  Perfection,  the 
Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  and  further 
that  to  have  the  assistance  of  this  Good  Spirit  they 
must  cultivate  good  thoughts,  good  words,  and 
good  deeds,  and  extreme  purity,  physical  and 
mental ;  otherwise  they  offend  the  six  Guardian 
Spirits  charged  with  the  care  of  the  three  sacred 
elements  (fire,  water,  earth),  metals,  animals  and 
birds,  trees  and  plants,  and  put  themselves  into  the 
power  of  the  Evil  Spirit,  who,  warring  against  the 
well-being  and  happiness  of  mankind,  perpetually 
sows  disease,  sin,  and  death. 

In  the  Zend  Avesta  (the  Zoroastrian  sacred 
writings),  purity  and  immunity  from  sin  and 
disease  are  continually  described  as  proceeding 
from  Good  thoughts,  Good  words,  and  Good  deeds. 
Through  them,  too,  lies  the  way  to  Heaven,  they 
give  the  soul  the  right  to  enter,  and  seem  also  to 
constitute  its  sole  reward.  A  beautiful  passage, 
from  the  Zend  Avesta,  descriptive  of  the  passing 
of  the  soul  of  the  good  man  upwards  after  death 
has  been  immortalised  by  G.  F.  Watts  in  his  pic- 
ture of  the  "  Dying  Warrior."  * 

"  When  the  third  night  turns  towards  the  light, 
then  the  soul  of  the  pure  man  goes  forward,  and  a 
light  wind  meets  him  from  the  south.   In  that  wind 

*  My  authority  for  this  statement  is  the  late  Mrs.  Arthur 
Hanson,  to  whom  Watts  quoted  this  passage  when  she  asked  him 
the  meaning  of  his  picture. 


28  BOMBAY 

comes  to  meet  him  the  figure  of  a  maiden,  beautiful 
and  shining,  with  brilliant  face.  Then  to  her  speaks 
the  soul  of  the  pure  man  :  'What  maiden  art  thou, 
whom  I  here  see  ?  who  art  fairer  than  maidens  of 
earth?'  And  she  replies  to  him,  'I  am,  O  youth, 
thine  own  good  thoughts  and  words  and  works, 
appearing  to  thee  in  greatness  and  goodness  and 
beauty." 

That  the  Parsis  do  obey  the  beautiful,  ethical 
precepts  of  their  religion  is  apparent  from  their 
lives,  which  are  active,  laborious,  patient,  generous, 
and  very  free  from  self-seeking.  In  their  corporate 
life  they  are  very  closely  united,  and  it  is  said  that 
extreme  poverty  and  crime  are  equally  unknown 
amongst  them.  I  understand  that  they  suffered 
very  little  from  the  plague.  But  last  census  showed 
that  this  most  intelligent  and  progressive  com- 
munity is  diminishing  in  numbers.  They  had 
decreased  considerably,  and  had  fewer  children 
under  five  years,  in  proportion,  than  any  other  class. 
There  is  a  growing  tendency  in  the  younger  genera- 
tion to  marry  out  of  the  community,  and  the  re- 
actionary party  have  lately  resolved  to  exclude  all 
such  from  their  temples  and  charitable  trusts.  Some 
of  the  more  progressive  able  men  are  determined 
to  test  the  legality  of  this  action,  which  they  con- 
sider threatens  the  advance  of  the  educated  Parsis 
socially  and  intellectually. 

The  gardens  round  the  Towers  of  Silence  were 
delightful,  they  were  bright  with  bushes  of  jasmine 
and  scarlet  poinsettia  and  oleander,  and  have  a 
lovely  view  over   the   sea.   They  look   down  on 


THE    NATIVE    QUARTER  29 

groves  of  palms  and  acacia-like  tamarind  trees, 
white  flowering  mango,  and  tall  peepul  trees  with 
.  vivid  green  foliage,  all  of  a  tremble  in  the  breeze, 
and  old  cypress  trees  wreathed  with  flaming  orange 
bignonia. 

But  the  great  attraction  of  Bombay  to  my  mind 
lies  between  Byculla,  Crawford  Market  and  the 
Docks,  in  the  extraordinary  strangeness  and  beauty 
of  the  streets  in  the  native  town.  It  is,  in  a  queer 
gaudy  way,  the  most  wonderfully  picturesque  place 
it  is  possible  to  imagine,  and,  I  believe,  one  of  the 
best  bits  of  oriental  town  to  be  seen  in  India.  I  was 
quite  enchanted  with  the  people  and  their  quaint 
haunts,  and  was  never  tired  of  driving  in,  in  the 
dogcart,  or  taking  the  tram,  and  wandering  on  foot 
through  the  crowded  streets,  under  tall,  brightly 
painted  houses  with  deeply  overhanging  balconies 
and  beautifully  ornamented  corbels  and  pillars. 

It  would  be  well  worth  coming  to  India  simply 
to  see  this  part  of  Bombay.  Indeed,  it  is  in  colour, 
sounds  and  smell — that  characteristic  and  unmis- 
takable Eastern  smell  of  ghee,  spices  and  wood- 
smoke — an  epitome  of  Indian  life.  The  architecture 
is  3. di^arre  mixture  of  Portuguese- Renaissance  and 
Hindu,  and  some  of  the  tall  houses  with  their 
elaborately  carved  facades  and  projecting  upper 
storeys  are  remarkably  good  as  works  of  art. 

In  the  marvellous,  small,  low  shops  beneath, 
squat  amongst  their  wares  the  native  tradesmen  on 
their  heels,  nursing  their  knees.  They  sell  different 
sorts  of  grain,  or  hammered  brass  and  copper  pots  ; 
gold  and  silver  Cutch  repoussd  work  of  Dutch 


30  BOMBAY 

origin,  or  gold  damascened  Gujrat  work  ;    tor- 
toise-shell carvings  ;  the  famous  "Bombay  boxes" 


A   HOUSE   IN   THE   NATIVE  QUARTER 

of  inlaid  sandal-wood  ;  carved  ebony  or  black- 
wood  furniture,  also  copied  from  the  Dutch ; 
carpets  from  Sind,  of  beautiful  conventional  de- 


DELIGHTFUL   COMBINATIONS        31 

signs  and  colouring  ;  gold,  and  silver-thread  and 
embroideries  ;  and  the  confectioners'  shops  were 
filled  with  strange,  oily-looking  sweetmeats  and 
queer  balls  of  flour  and  honey.  There  are  also  many 
thousand  jewellers,  from  different  parts  of  India, 
who  here  display  their  dazzling  wares  :  bracelets, 
armlets,  anklets,  nose-rings,  necklets,  made  of 
strings  of  pearl  and  turquoise  threaded  on  a  gold 
wire ;  or  of  bands  of  gold  enamelled  with  blue, 
green  and  red,  or  set  with  many-coloured  gems — 
sapphires,  emeralds,  or  rubies — which  are  often 
quite  valueless  except  for  the  artistic  effect  pro- 
duced by  the  points  and  sparkles  of  their  gorgeous 
brilliant  colour  ;  chains  of  pearl  with  pierced 
amethysts  dangling  by  a  hook  from  between  every 
two  or  three  beads  ;  native  gold  ornaments  of  many 
kinds,  either  magnificently  solid  from  Gujrat,  or 
covered  with  intricate  designs  from  the  Mahratti 
districts. 

The  whole  place  is  one  great  bazaar,  which  runs 
through  deep  buildings  where  quaint  archways 
give  access  to  unexpected  mosques  or  Hindu 
temples,  painted  like  the  houses  in  boldly  brilliant 
and  vivid  reds  and  greens.  All  things  conspire  to 
make  delightful  combinations  for  sketching — the 
deep  overhanging  archways  and  balconies;  the 
lace-like  carving  on  the  corbels;  the  frequent  vistas 
of  Hindu  towers,  domes,  or  stone  carvings,  and 
here  and  there  a  minaret;  the  tanks  with  steps 
down  to  the  water  and  surrounded  with  a  cluster 
of  little  temples,  each  with  its  upright  stone  spire. 

All  this  is  bathed  in  bright  sunlight,  and  ani- 


32  BOMBAY 

mated  by  the  continual  stream  of  marvellous 
figures,  surging  and  shouting  in  the  narrow  street. 
It  is  for  all  the  world  like  a  gigantic  ant-heap  that 
has  been  disturbed — or,  perhaps,  rather  like  some 
gigantic  tulip-garden  :  for  the  vivid  variety  of 
riotous  colours  is  endless  and  inconceivable ;  yet  all 
these  hues  of  red  and  yellow,  vermilion,  crimson, 
cherry-colour,  rose  and  peach,  orange,  saffron, 
lemon,  or  canary-colour,  and  of  purple,  blue,  or 
green  of  metallic  or  tender  shade,  are  blent  and  har- 
monised deliciously  in  the  glorious  atmosphere  of 
light,  saturated  and  subdued  by  the  softening  in- 
fluence of  the  sea  air. 

Equally  inexhaustible  seem  the  resources  of  cos- 
tume, for  in  hardly  any  place  in  the  world  is  there 
a  busier  city  life  than  in  Bombay,  or  a  more  varied 
assemblage  of  national  types.  There  are  of  course 
more  Hindus,  Mohammedans,  Parsis  and  Mahrat- 
tas  than  representatives  of  any  other  race,  but  speci- 
mens of  almost  every  characteristic  oriental  dress 
may  be  met  jostling  each  other  in  the  swarming 
Bhendi  bazaar.  There  are  the  Hindu  coolies  and 
artisans,  with  hardly  a  rag  to  cover  their  bronze 
limbs ;  elderly  Parsis,  with  cerise  silk  trousers 
and  cowhoof-shaped  brown  or  black  brimless  hats; 
shimmeringgreen  and  gold  turbaned  Mohammedan 
Moulvies  or  Khojahs ;  deep  copper-coloured  Mah- 
rattas  and  rich  Gujrathi  and  Marwari  baniyas,  with 
vermilion  or  crimson  or  white  head-dresses,  some 
arranged  with  high  pointed  peaks;  fair  complexioned 
Parsi  women,  with  beautiful  eyes  and  dark  hair  and 
fine  jewellery,  clothed  in  the  delicate-hued  soft  silk 


THE   CROWD  33 

draperies  from  Surat,  which  flow  in  artistic  folds 
of  everyconceivable  colour  ;  Hindu  women  in  white 
saris,  carrying  on  their  heads  graceful  brass  lotas, 
are  jostled  by  Arab  horse-dealers  from  Muscat 
with  long  burnooses,  and  heads  swathed  in  kefiahs 
bound  with  camel's-hair  cords  ;  dignified  Persians, 
in  Astrakan  caps  ;  Turks  ;  wild-looking  Afghans 
from  the  north,  smocked  and  turbaned  in  blue ; 
supple  -  limbed  Malays,  black  -  skinned  Somali 
negroes;  Lascars  from  the  P. and O. and  other  liners 
in  the  port ;  fishermen  from  the  neighbouring 
suburb  of  Mazagon  :  in  fact,  it  is  a  veritable 
kaleidoscope  of  all  Eastern  tribes  and  races,  far 
and  near. 

One  morning,  after  "choti  hazri "  and  before 
nineo'clock  breakfast,  I  wentintotheOldTown  and 
made  a  slight  sketch  of  one  of  the  houses  near  the 
bazaar  which  has  a  good  deal  of  ornamentation 
about  it.  The  ground  floor  is  raised  about  six 
steps  above  the  street  and  recedes,  leaving  space 
for  a  deep  stone  verandah,  in  front  of  which  orna- 
mented pillars  rise  to  support  quaintly  sculptured 
corbels  upon  which  the  upper  part  of  the  house 
rests.  The  woodwork  of  this  upper  part  was  also 
richly  carved,  and  the  windows  were  furnished 
with  innumerable  shutters.  Afterwards  I  wandered 
into  the  noisy  but  delightful  brass  bazaar,  and 
thence  to  some  of  the  temples  :  in  one  was  a  large 
tank  and  the  two  queer  little  towers  in  seven  tiers 
at  its  side  were  intended  to  hold,  on  solemn  occa- 
sions, tiny  earthenware  jars  filled  with  cocoa-nut 
oil,  in  which  floating  wicks  give  as  much  light  as 


34  BOMBAY 

wax  candles.  These  native  illuminations,  out- 
lining all  the  architectural  features  with  lines  of 
fire,  are  the  prettiest  sight  of  the  sort  imaginable. 
When  I  saw  these  quaint  towers,  they  were  covered 
with  pigeons,  perching  in  the  niches  and  fluttering 
and  hovering  around. 

Another  bright  day,  with  the  thermometer  at 
80°,  I  was  out  sketching  in  Hornby  Row  at  seven 
o'clock,  and  after  breakfast  Mrs.  Burn-Murdoch 
kindly  took  us  to  see  the  Bombay  Pottery  Works. 
They  were  under  the  management  of  Mr.  George 
Terry,  an  old  man  with  a  bent  back,  who  told  me 
that  the  origin  of  this  revival  of  the  old  industry 
is  due  to  a  conversation  he  had  with  Sir  Bartle 
Frere.  It  is  a  rude  kind  of  ware  which  is  made 
here,  something  like  the  Valerie  pottery  but  not 
with  such  transparent  glaze,  though  some  of  the 
colours  are  very  good. 

Some  of  the  best  native  potter's  ware  in  all 
India  comes  from  Sind,  and  the  industry  is 
believed  to  have  been  introduced  by  the  Moguls. 
They  covered  their  mosques  and  tombs  with 
beautifully  coloured  specimens  of  this  art,  in  tur- 
quoise-blue, copper-green,  dark  purple,  or  golden 
brown,  under  an  exquisitely  transparent  glaze. 
The  Indian  artisan  is  remarkable  for  his  patience, 
his  thoroughness,  and  accuracy  of  detail,  and  his 
artistic  feeling  for  colour  and  form.  The  metal 
work  and  carving  shows  his  true  sense  of  conven- 
tional ornament.  The  composition  and  colour  in 
carpets  or  enamels  and  the  form  of  his  pottery  have 
seldom  been  surpassed.  But  much  of  the  skill  of 


NATIVE   ART  35 

the  Indian  craftsman  is  due  to  the  hereditary- 
nature  of  his  art.  The  potter,  the  weaver,  the  smith, 
each  belong  to  a  separate  caste  ;  and  a  son  inevit- 
ably follows  the  trade  of  his  father  and  reproduces 
his  work. 

Unfortunately,  the  competition  and  prestige  of 
Europe  have  created  a  tendency  to  imitate  Euro- 
pean designs  ;  other  causes  also  have  combined  to 
bring  about  a  deterioration  in  the  native  work. 
One  of  the  conditions  most  necessary  to  elicit  good 
and  artistic  work  from  a  native  craftsman  is  abso- 
lute leisure.  It  is  essential  to  have  infinite  patience 
with  him,  and  to  avoid  pressing  him  in  any  way ; 
for  only  when  he  is  allowed  perfect  liberty  to  turn 
from  one  piece  of  work  to  another,  as  the  spirit 
moves  him,  can  he  produce  his  best.  The  best 
work  used  to  be  done  to  the  order  of  wealthy 
princes  and  nobles  of  the  native  courts,  many  of 
which  have  now  ceased  to  exist,  or  lost  their  in- 
fluence and  wealth  ;  and  large  orders,  to  be  turned 
out  at  a  fixed  date,  have  tended,  as  much  as  any- 
thing, in  the  direction  of  decadence  in  Indian  art. 

The  School  of  Art  in  Bombay  has  done  much 
to  revive  the  various  technical  industries  of  the 
people,  which  were  dying  out ;  but  whether  the  in- 
fluence of  the  different  Government  Schools  of  Art 
has  been  altogether  beneficial  is  a  much-disputed 
point,  as  there  is  always  much  risk  that  a  school 
containing  principally  casts  from  the  antique,  and 
details  of  Italian  and  Gothic  ornament,  will  destroy 
the  old  indigenous  ideals ;  and  as  the  native 
craftsmen   have  not  much    creative    power,    the 


36  BOMBAY 

result  may  be  that  their  work  will  lose  all  distinc- 
tive character. 

The  little  brown  native  children  in  the  streets 
are  a  delightful,  and  often  a  curious,  sight.  The 
little  Hindu  girls  all  wear  nose-rings  on  the  left 
side,  even  though  they  may  have  no  other  attire, 
and  they  have  often  a  profusion  of  jewels  ;  chains, 
and  bangles  without  end.  Indeed  they  are  some- 
times made  away  with  for  the  sake  of  the  jewels 
with  which  the  native  parent  delights  to  load  her 
child.  One  day  we  went  to  inspect  a  Parsi  girls' 
school,  and  were  delighted  with  all  we  saw.  The 
head-mistress  was  a  Parsi,  with  three  English 
mistresses  under  her,  and  there  were  two  hundred 
better-class  girls,  from  five  to  eighteen  years 
of  age,  all  able  to  pay  for  their  education.  The  elder 
girls  sang  some  of  Scott  Gatty's  songs,  and  the 
little  children  their  "  Duty  to  God,  their  Parents 
and  their  Teachers,"  in  Mahratta,  clapping  their 
hands  three  times  at  the  beginning  of  each  line ; 
the  music,  like  all  Oriental  music,  had  a  curiously 
weird  effect.  Up  to  fifteen,  the  girls  were  dressed 
like  little  boys,  in  short  satin  trousers  reaching 
below  the  knee,  a  sort  of  muslin  vest  and  straight 
tight  jackets  of  coloured  satin.  Their  hair  hung 
down  in  a  pigtail  beneath  little  round  tinsel  caps 
embroidered  in  gold  or  pearls.  The  elder  children 
were  dressed,  like  the  women,  in  the  ordinary  silk 
sari,  of  beautiful  delicate  shades,  edged  with  gold 
or  silver  embroidery.  They  looked  happy  and  well, 
a  contrast  to  the  European  children,  poor  little 
things,  who  were  the  colour  of  paper :  long  residence 


OVERCROWDING  37 

in  this  climate  seemed  to  make  every  one  look  pale 
and  boiled  to  rags,  yet  it  does  not  exhaust  them 
entirely.  The  popular  and  energetic  Governor  him- 
self looked  tired,  and  no  wonder,  with  so  much 
anxious  work  on  his  hands  ;  but  he  was  in  good 
spirits ;  and  our  genial  and  indefatigable  hostess 
had  energy  enough  to  leave  Government  House 
once  a  week  at  4  a.m.,  drive  a  mile  and  a  half  to 
the  station,  then  after  a  short  railway  journey  have 
a  good  run  with  the  hounds — the  quarry  being  a 
jackal  :  she  used  to  be  back  again  in  Bombay  for 
nine  o'clock  breakfast. 

Occasionally  the  thermometer  dropped  to  the 
sixties  and  then  it  was  chilly  ;  one  night,  driving 
back  from  dinner  with  the  Bishop  at  Malabar 
Court,  there  was  a  strong  wind,  and  we  felt  it  quite 
cold.  But  in  spite  of  the  cool  nights  and  mornings, 
the  sun  was  wonderfully  strong — and  I  found  it 
almost  too  hot,  and  in  the  old  town  humanity  was 
too  closely  packed  for  sketching  there  to  be  agree- 
able. 

This  mass  of  human  beings,  with  hardly  a  stitch 
of  clothes  on  their  bodies,  are  terribly  overcrowded, 
especially  in  the  poorer  quarters.  The  over- 
crowding is  most  dense  in  the  gigantic  lodging- 
houses,  or  ''chawls,"  in  which  so  large  a  part  of 
the  native  population  lives.  A  single  chawl,  five 
to  seven  stories  high — with  its  steep  narrow  stairs 
leading  to  nests  of  small  rooms,  each  inhabited 
by  a  family  and  opening  on  to  a  long,  narrow, 
and  dark  passage — may  contain  from  five  hundred 
to  a  thousand  inhabitants. 


38  BOMBAY 

Every  known  rule  of  sanitation  is  disregarded 
in  these  houses,  which  have  the  largest  population 
to  a  square  mile  of  any  city  in  the  world  ;  and 
here,  in  September  1896,  a  terrible  visitation  of 
the  plague  made  its  first  appearance  since  the 
time  of  Aurangzeb,  and  devastated  Bombay,  pre- 
viously regarded  as  one  of  the  healthiest  of  Oriental 
cities.  It  is  not  considered  likely  that  it  originated 
on  the  spot,  though  its  origin  cannot  be  ascertained 
with  any  degree  of  certainty;  there  are  believed  to 
be  only  two  possible  sources  of  infection,  either  the 
country  to  the  extreme  north  of  India,  or  China, 
for  in  both  of  these  places  plague  constantly  pre- 
vails. The  probability  seems  to  be  that  it  came  from 
China  and  was  carried  by  rats,  who  certainly  suffer 
and  die  from  the  disease,  and  transmit  it  to  human 
beings  by  contact,  or  perhaps  by  means  of  fleas, 
which  abound  on  the  bodies  of  rats  and  desert 
them  after  death.  In  spite  of  the  most  strenuous 
efforts,  it  was  found  impossible  to  carry  out  all 
the  desirable  regulations,  on  account  of  the  violent 
opposition  and  excited  feeling  of  the  people,  who 
concealed  their  sick,  opposed  all  disinfection,  and 
even  attacked  the  hospitals ;  consequently,  the 
plague  spread  from  Bombay  City  into  the  Presi- 
dency, along  the  sea-coast  and  inland  in  every 
direction.  It  then  established  its  hold  on  the  Pun- 
jab and  North-West,  and  has  since  then  returned 
every  year,  and  in  some  districts  in  North  India  it 
raged  in  1904-5  with  a  violence  unparalleled  since 
the  "Black  Death"  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
The  Commission  sent  out  by  the  Home  Govern- 


THE    PLAGUE 


39 


ment  to  report  on  the  matter  came  to  the  dis- 
heartening conclusion  that  "  there  are  no  means  of 
stamping  out  the  present  epidemic  of  plague  in 
India  ;  that  even  with  the  best  measures  most 
rigidly  applied,  a  certain  amount  of  danger  sub- 
sists, and  all  that  can  be  done  is  to  lessen  the 
danger  as  much  as  possible."  The  fear  lest  the 
Indian  epidemic  should  spread  to  Europe  does  not 
appear  to  be  without  foundation. 

The  terrible  mortality  in  the  Punjab  in  1904-5 
sheds  a  lurid  light  on  these  serious  words. 


UNDER  MALABAR  HILL 


IN  THE  FUNERAL  PROCESSION 


CHAPTER   II 
POONA 

We  left  Malabar  Point  to  give  place  to  the 
new  Governor  of  Madras,  who  was  to  land  here  on 
the  way  to  take  up  his  appointment.  It  was  rather 
nasty  weather,  so  that  he  and  his  party  arrived 
twenty-four  hours  late,  and  the  A.D.C.s  and 
bodyguard,  who  were  at  the  Apollo  Bunder 
at  7  A.M.  to  receive  them,  had  to  wait  hours 
before  they  were  able  to  land.  We  left  with  regret, 
and  with  a  promise  to  return  to  Malabar  Point  on 
our  way  home,  when  we  had  completed  our 
Indian  tour. 

Our  journey  to  Poona  was  our  first  experience 
of  an  Indian  train,  with  its  screens  of  boarding 
hanging  over  the  windows  to  keep  off  the  dust, 
its  double  roof,  and  smoked-coloured  glass  win- 
dows. We  had  a  very  agreeable  fellow-traveller 
in  an  old  Etonian  friend,  Captain  Clewes. 

The  line  runs  to  the  foot  of  the  hills,  over  a  flat 
plain — which,  after  the  rains,  is  one  great  swamp, 
but  was  then  dried  up  and  baked.  Then  we  began 
to  mount  the  Ghats,  which  we  had  so  often  seen 
from  Bombay,  looking,  as  their  name  implies,  like 
gigantic  landing  stairs  from  the  seaboard  to  the 


42  POONA 

Deccan  plateau.  The  scenery  was  very  fine  as  we 
ascended  bya  mountain  pass;  and  when  the  country 
is  less  burned  up,  it  must  be  beautiful.  As  it  was, 
we  had  some  grand  views  looking  back  upon  the 
hazy  plains  below. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  Western  Ghats  is 
that  they  are  all  flat-topped,  and  that  the  upper 
layer,  a  stratum  of  basalt  or  trap,  usually  has  pre- 
cipitous sides,  broken  through  by  prodigious  vol- 
canic outbursts  which  have  formed  the  most  un- 
expected jagged  pinnacles  and  craggy  peaks.  These 
rise  abruptly  out  of  the  forests,  on  the  terraced 
sides.  Near  the  top  the  line  makes  a  zig-zag  to 
reach  the  heights  above — the  Deccan  plateau — 
which  extends  in  one  monotonous  plain  right  away 
to  Madras.  Here  we  were  at  the  watershed.  From 
this  point  the  welcome  rain,  brought  to  the  West- 
ern Ghats  by  the  Bombay  sea-breeze  and  the  un- 
failingmonsoonfromtheArabian Ocean,  has  to  find 
an  outlet  to  the  eastward,  right  across  India,  in  the 
Bay  of  Bengal.  Clewes  pointed  out  several  spots 
in  the  jungle  where  he  said  panthers  and  bears 
were  to  be  found,  but  the  jungle  struck  us  as  a 
very  scrubby  affair  compared  with  that  of  Ceylon. 

The  Mahrattas,  who  had  their  capital  at  Poona, 
were,  from  the  time  of  Aurangzeb  till  1818, 
supreme  in  the  Maharashtra,  "  the  great  Province," 
which  extends  from  the  Arabian  Sea  to  the  Satara 
mountains  in  the  north,  and  includes  a  great  part 
of  Western  and  Central  India.  The  name  was 
that  of  the  people  of  all  races,  living  in  this  region, 
but  is  applied  to  Hindus  only.    The  Mahrattas, 


MAHRATTAS 


43 


who  probablydescended  into  Indiafrom  the  North- 
West  at  an  early  period,  still  regard  themselves 
as  a  separate  people,  though  nowadays  they  almost 


JAGGED   PINNACLES  OF  THE  GHATS 

all  belong  to  British  India  or  to  the  Nizam's 
dominions  :  their  language  is  a  copious,  flexible 
and  sonorous  tongue.  They  are  of  two  castes  only, 
Brahmans  and  Sudras.  The  Brahmans  have  small 
square  heads,  dark  skins,  and  the  regular  features. 


44  POONA 

spare  upright  figure  and  calm  commanding  ap- 
pearance of  a  high-bred  race,  and  are  among  the 
most  ambitious  and  able  men  in  India.  The  low- 
caste  Mahrattas  are  uncouth,  small  wiry  men, 
showing  much  activity  and  power  of  endurance. 
Bred  and  born  among  the  hills  they  have  the 
qualities  of  mountaineers,  and  in  defence  of  their 
homes  they  have  always  shown  great  bravery, 
though  they  have  "  rather  the  courage  of  the  free- 
booter than  the  genuine  soldierly  instinct."  There 
are  now  six  Mahratta  regiments  in  the  Indian 
army,  but  the  race  as  a  whole  has  settled  down  to 
agriculture. 

During  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era 
the  Mahrattas  enjoyed  considerable  prosperity 
under  a  number  of  petty  chiefs.  They  submitted, 
with  but  little  resistance,  to  the  first  Mohamme- 
dan invasion,  but  in  1657  Shivaji,  the  famous  hero 
of  Mahratta  story,  rebelled  against  the  Mohamme- 
dan Kings  of  Bijapur.  He  and  his  soldiers  were 
of  humble  caste,  though  his  ministers  were 
Mahratta  Brahmans.  He  inspired  his  country- 
men with  his  own  enthusiasm,  and  his  followers 
were  conspicuous  for  their  dashing  qualities. 
It  was  long  since  the  Moguls  had  met  with 
any  serious  resistance  ;  but  Shivaji,  having  con- 
quered Bijapur,  defied  the  Emperor,  and  before 
he  died  had  gone  far  towards  shaking  off  their 
yoke.  The  new  Mahratta  State  which  he  founded 
was  ultimately  recognised  by  Aurangzeb.  Shivaji's 
grandson,  brought  up  at  the  Delhi  court,  turned 
out   feeble   and    degenerate,   and   was   a   puppet. 


MAHRATTA    RAIDS  45 

"  in  the  hands  of  his  Brahman  minister,  the 
Peshwa,  who  threatened  Delhi  and  succeeded 
in  establishing  the  right  of  "chauth"  —  the 
famous  Mahratta  claim  of  one-fourth  of  the  State 
revenue — over  the  whole  Deccan.  The  office  of 
Peshwa  became  hereditary,  and  grew  in  import- 
ance with  the  growth  of  the  Mahratta  kingdom, 
the  kings  sinking  into  obscurity.  Before  1760  the 
Mahrattas  had  overrun  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa, 
and  various  Mahratta  chiefs  had  seized  different 
parts  of  the  Mogul  Empire  :  Sindhia  ruled  over  a 
large  stretch  of  country  south  of  Agra  and  Delhi, 
the  Gaekwars  held  the  Rajput  plains  of  Gujrat, 
and  the  north  of  Bombay,  and  Holkar  the  uplands 
of  Malwa.  All  these  States  acknowledged  the 
Peshwa  at  Poona,  as  the  head  of  the  Mahratta 
confederation,  which  finally  absorbed  nearly  the 
whole  of  India  and  became  the  largest  empire 
ever  formed  by  a  Hindu  race.  The  renowned 
Mahratta  cavalry  numbered  100,000  men,  and 
boasted  of  having  watered  their  horses  in  every 
Indian  river  from  the  Kistna  to  the  Indus. 
Their  method  was  to  ride  long  distances  into 
a  hostile  country,  strike  some  terrific  blow  and 
then  retire  beyond  reach  of  pursuit.  But  the 
confederation  lacked  the  elements  of  permanency  ; 
it  depended  on  plundering  expeditions,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Peshwas,  its  chiefs  were  rude 
freebooting  warriors.  The  first  check  came  when 
the  Afghan,  Ahmed  Shah  Abdali,  invaded  India 
in  1 76 1,  and  completely  crushed  the  Mahrattas  at 
Panipat.  Their  empire  was  not  broken  up  however 


46  POONA 

until  the  British  came  into  contact  with  them  : 
and  till  1803  the  titular  Emperor  of  Delhi  remained 
under  the  control  of  Sindhia.  Then  took  place  the 
great  Mahratta  war,  in  which  both  the  Wellesleys 
distinguished  themselves.  After  hard  fighting  at 
Assaye,  Argaum,  Delhi  and  Dig,  the  Mahratta 
confederacy  was  destroyed.  One  more  struggle 
took  place  between  18 16- 1 818,  when  the  Peshwa 
joined  with  the  freebooting  Pindaris  of  Rajpootana 
in  an  attempt  to  defy  British  supremacy ;  but 
Mountstuart  Elphinstone  formed  a  scheme  by. 
which  Holkar  was  utterly  defeated  at  Mahidpur 
and  the  Peshwa  at  Kirkee.  The  Peshwa  sur- 
rendered to  Sir  John  Malcolm,  who  sent  him  as 
a  prisoner  to  Bithna  near  Cawnpore.  Here  he  died 
in  1 85 1,  leaving  his  undying  hatred  of  his  con- 
querors as  a  legacy  to  his  adopted  son,  the  infamous 
Nana  Sahib,  who  showed  the  true  Mahratta  tem- 
per in  the  Cawnpore  Massacres  of  June  1857. 

At  the  top  of  the  Ghats  we  found  a  deliciously 
cool  breeze,  and  enjoyed  a  brilliant  sunset,  and  at 
Poona  Station  were  greeted  by  our  host.  Major 
Spratt.  A  drive  often  minutes  amongst  bungalows 
and  compounds  overshadowed  by  acacias  brought 
us  to  his  house,  where  he  and  his  wife  were  com- 
fortably installed,  and  we  spent  some  very  pleasant 
days  with  them,  and  made  acquaintance  for  the 
first  time  with  a  normal  Anglo-Indian  household. 

I  had  never  realised  before  what  a  retinue 
the  exigencies  of  caste  require  the  unfortunate 
Englishman  to  keep  going.  First  there  is  the 
Khansama  or  head-man,  who  is  responsible  for 


AN    ANGLO-INDIAN    HOUSEHOLD    47 

all  the  other  servants,  and  buys  all  the  provi- 
sions in  the  market  ;  he  has  to  have  a  coolie  to 
bring  home  the  food  and  hand  it  over  to  the  cook, 
who  is,  of  course,  provided  with  a  washer-up.  A 
Khidmatjar,  usually  a  Mahommedan,  has  charge  . 
of  the  pantry,  and  waits  at  table.  Then  each  member 
of  the  family  has  his  own  Bearer,  who  is  appa- 
rently responsible  for  his  master  and  all  his 
belongings,  and  dusts  and  keeps  them  in  order. 
The  Sweeper  does  all  the  rougher  work,  and  the 
obliging  Bheesti,  with  his  goatskin  water-bag, 
provides  the  water  for  the  big  bath-tub,  which, 
standing  on  the  Chuma  floor  of  the  bath- 
room, surrounded  with  earthenware  chatties,  is 
always  kept  full  of  water,  and  is  one  of  the 
pleasantest  of  Indian  luxuries.  Part  of  the  floor  is 
set  about  with  a  four-inch  high  wall,  and  provided 
with  water  channels  leading  to  a  hole  in  the  wall, 
where  the  water  runs  out,  and  by  which  the  snakes, 
who  like  cool  damp  retreats,  occasionally  come  in. 
Then  there  is  the  Dhobi,  who  washes  your  clothes 
in  the  river  by  the  effectively  destructive  process 
peculiar  to  India.  He  stands  in  the  water,  close 
to  a  stone  or  rock,  and  when  he  has  rinsed  the 
garment  in  the  stream  he  lifts  it  in  a  bundle  above 
his  head,  and  with  all  his  force  dashes  it  repeatedly 
against  the  rock  till  it  is  clean.  Needless  to  say, 
it  returns  to  you  rather  the  worse  for  the  w^ear  and 
tear ;  and  I  was  not  so  much  amazed  to  hear  that 
there  are  men  who  send  their  shirts  to  England 
to  be  washed,  as  I  should  have  been  without  my 
acquaintance  with    the   methods  of   the   dhobi. 


48  POONA 

Then,  there  is  the  Durwan  or  doorkeeper,  the 
7]/<^// or  gardener,  a  Chaprasi ox  "badge-bearer"  to 
take  notes  and  do  outside  commissions,  a  Punkah 
wala,  a  Durzi,  or  tailor,  who  sits  in  the  verandah 
and  sews,  an  Ayah  for  each  lady  in  the  house, 
and,  for  each  horse,  a  Syce  who  sleeps  at  the  foot 
of  his  stall,  besides  the  Coachman  who  drives  you. 
So  that  the  simplest  ordinary  Anglo-Indian  house- 
hold consists  of  at  least  nineteen  or  twenty  ser- 
vants. Fortunately,they  all  have  their  separate  huts, 
with  their  wives,  behind  reed  enclosures  in  the 
compound,  and  cater  for  themselves. 

It  is  only  after  hearing  something  of  the  caste 
system,  and  its  indissolubly  close  connection  with 
religion  in  India,  that  it  becomes  apparent  w^hy 
the  Englishman  has  allowed  himself  to  be  saddled 
with  this,  at  first  sight,  ridiculously  large  staff. 
The  Hindu  believes  that  the  Supreme  God  created 
separate  orders  of  men,  with  fixed  employments, 
as  He  created  varieties  of  plants  and  animals,  and 
that  whatever  a  man  is  born  that  he  must  remain 
for  the  whole  course  of  this  life.  Consequently, 
should  any  member  of  even  the  lowest  caste  over- 
step the  strict  limits  of  his  divinely  ordained  duty, 
he  would  commit  an  offence,  to  deal  with  which  a 
caste  meeting  would  have  to  be  called  ;  and  should 
the  transgression  be  proved,  the  culprit  would  be 
condemned  to  a  form  of  persecution,  of  which, 
says  Sir  Monier  Williams,  boycotting  is  a  feeble 
imitation.  No  one  of  his  own  or  any  caste  would 
be  allowed  to  associate  or  have  any  trade  deal- 
ings with  him.     He  would  be  a  ruined,  homeless. 


CASTES  49 

friendless  outcast,  and  his  only  course  would  be  to 
flee  the  country  ;  unless,  by  a  money  payment  and 
submitting  to  degrading  ceremonial  purification, 
he  were  able  to  secure  re-admission  to  the  ranks 
of  his  fellows.  Originally  there  were  but  four  castes 
— Brahmans,  the  first  human  emanation  of  the 
Supreme  God  ;  Kshatriyas  or  soldiers  ;  Vaisyas  or 
agriculturists  (these  are  the  so-called  "  twice  born  " 
castes) ;  and  Sudras  or  servants.  They  were  all 
believed  to  be  born  and  obliged  to  remain  "  as  dis- 
tinct from  each  otheras  elephants,  lions,  oxen,  dogs, 
wheat,  barley,  rice  or  beans." 

But  as  society  became  more  complicated,  and  a 
greater  variety  of  occupations  became  a  necessity, 
the  four  castes  were  split  up,  and  developed  into 
an  endless  number  of  trade-castes,  often  of  mixed 
origin.  The  census  has  revealed  innumerable  pro- 
fessions of  most  strangely  amusing  simplicity, 
such  as  "  hereditary  givers  of  evidence,"  heredi- 
tary beggars,  hereditary  tom-tom  men,  ''hereditary 
makers  of  speeches,"  hereditary  "  planters  of  cut- 
tings," hereditary  professionals  whose  business  in 
life  it  is  "  to  make  sport  of  the  enemies  of  the  rich 
and  praise  their  friends."  There  still  remain  some 
of  the  original  pure  castes,  chiefly  amongst  Brah- 
mans, but  the  Rajpoots  claim  to  be  pure-blooded 
Kshatriyas,  and  the  baniyas  or  traders  to  be  pure 
Vaisyas.  Members  of  these  four  original  castes 
are  superior  to  those  of  any  trade-caste  of  mixed 
origin.  But  nowadays  a  Brahman  need  not  neces- 
sarily be  a  priest;  his  parents  may  choose  for 
him  a  secular  profession,  and  he  may  be  a  cook 


50  POONA 

or  a  soldier,  or  indeed  belong  to  any  trade-caste 
which  is  not  degrading.  But  to  whatever,  caste 
a  man  belongs,  he  must  conform  implicitly  to 
its  rules,  which  are  supposed  to  be  divinely 
ordained  :  they  regulate  the  food  to  be  eaten, 
the  common  meal  which  may  be  shared,  mar- 
riage, and  the  employment  a  man  may  engage  in. 
The  food  allowed  varies  in  the  different  castes, 
but  must  never  be  cooked  by  a  person  of  lower 
origin.  No  food  cooked  with  water  may  be  shared 
by  different  castes  together,  and  strict  rules  deter- 
mine from  whom  the  higher  castes  may  receive  water. 
Fruit,  however,  or  dry  food  requiring  no  prepara- 
tion, may  be  shared  indiscriminately.  No  inter- 
marriage is  allowed  between  persons  of  different 
castes,  and  caste-rule  enforces  child  marriage,  and 
sternly  forbids  the  re-marriage  of  a  widow.  The 
different  castes,  and  the  worshippers  of  the  different 
gods,  are  distinguished  from  one  another  byspecial 
signs  with  which  the  forehead  is  marked  after 
bathing.  Some  kind  of  perpendicular  bar  denotes 
a  follower  of  Vishnu  ;  and  some  mark  denoting  his 
third  eye,  a  follower  of  Shiva. 

In  spite  of  the  tyranny  and  terrorism  which 
may  result  from  the  caste  system  it  is  not  all  bad  ; 
and  though  it  has  created  various  complexities  in 
the  Englishman's  household,  yet  probably  the 
endless  divisions  and  animosities  of  caste  and 
trade  leagues,  which  make  political  combinations 
impossible,  have  helped  us  to  govern  India. 

Poona,  which  stands  on  a  rather  rocky,  bare  and 
treeless  plain  on  the  bank  of  the  River  Mutto,  is 


PARBATI    HILL  51 

the  centre  of  the  government  of  Bombay  during 
the  rainy  season  and  the  headquarters  of  the  Bom- 
bay army.  Our  host,  Major  Spratt,*  and  Captain 
Clewes  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  whilst  we 
were  in  Poona,  in  camp  some  six  miles  distant ; 
where  manoeuvring  and  gun-practice  were  going 
on.     The  camp  was  pitched  on  an  exposed  plain 


U        lU 


1,  2,  and  3,  Followers  of  Vishnu. 
4,  5,  6,  7,  and  8,  Followers  of  Shiva. 

SECTARIAL  MARKS 

to  the  east  of  the  town,  with  plenty  of  space  all 
round. 

The  day  after  our  arrival  in  Poona  we  drove 
out  to  Parbati  Hill,  which  is  an  isolated  conical 
peak,  crowned  by  an  old  palace  and  a  Hindu 
temple.  Parbati  is  about  three  miles  south  in 
the  direction  of  the  hills,  which  terminate  in  the 
bold  square  rock  of  Singhgarh,  a  place  famous  in 
Mahratta  history. 

We  reached  the  foot  of  the  Parbati  Hill  just 
about  the  hottest  part  of  the  morning,  and  toiled 
up  the  steps  to  the  summit.     There  are  about 

*  Now  Colonel  Spratt  Bowring,  R.A. 


52  POONA 

two  hundred  great  wide  steps  and  ramps  on  the 
way  up,  with  their  numbers  marked  on  them  in 
Marathi :  we  took  it  easily  and  did  it  pretty  com- 
fortably, but  it  was  a  hot  walk,  and  we  were  very 
glad  to  fall  in  with  the  suggestion  of  an  old 
woman,  going  up  with  offerings ;  and  we  sat  be- 
side her  on  a  step,  under  the  shade  of  a  cactus 
hedge.  Half  way  up  we  found  a  blind  man  who, 
having  received  a  copper,  shouted  out  tidings  of  our 
approach  to  the  temple  above.  The  view  on  the  way 
up  appeared  to  us  rather  fine,  when  once  we  had 
become  reconciled  to  the  dried-up  aspect  of  the 
country.  The  parched  plain  of  Poona,  dotted  with 
little  groups  of  trees  and  ending  in  the  line  of  ghats 
and  the  hills  of  Satara,  was  spread  out  at  our  feet 
like  a  great  tawny  yellow  carpet  flecked  with  black, 
under  the  pale  blue  canopy  of  sunlight.  When  we 
got  quite  to  the  top  we  found  a  deep  picturesque 
window  opening  in  the  wall,  and  there  we  stayed 
some  time  to  rest,  looking  down  over  Poona  and 
the  river  on  one  side,  and  to  a  wooded  tract  of 
country  away  across  the  famous  battle-field  of 
Kirkee.  The  last  Peshwa  is  said  to  have  watched 
the  final  annihilation  of  his  troops  from  this 
identical  window.  To  the  south,  on  our  left,  lay 
the  hills,  amongst  which  is  Mahabaleshwa — where 
our  host's  children  then  were — the  hill  station  to 
which  before  the  rains  all  Bombay  takes  flight 
from  the  heat.  A  canal  leads  towards  these  hills, 
and  ends,  about  seven  miles  off,  in  the  great  arti- 
ficial lake  of  Khadakwazla,  over  fourteen  miles 
long,  from  which  the  Poona  water-supply  comes. 


HINDU    PANTHEON  53 

When  we  reached  the  top  of  the  Parbati  Hill 
the  hereditary  chief  priest  was  having  his  midday 
meal,  and  did  not  make  his  appearance  until  later  ; 
but  his  son,  an  intelligent  young  Brahman  educated 
in  a  school  in  Poona  and  speaking  English  re- 
markably well,  met  us  and  took  us  round. 

In  an  outhouse  of  the  temple  we  were  interested 
to  see  two  women  grinding  at  the  mill  in  the  true 
Biblical  fashion,  with  two  stones  and  a  handle  in 
the  side  of  the  top  one. 

Besides  the  principal  temple  to  Parbati,  or 
Durga,  the  wife  of  Shiva,  there  are  within  the 
enclosure  here,  two  other  temples,  one  to  Vishnu 
and  one  to  Ganesh,  the  elephant-headed  god  of 
good  luck,  and  in  the  corner  of  the  first  court-yard 
are  four  shrines.  These  are  dedicated  to  Surya,  god 
of  the  sun,  driving  a  chariot ;  Kartikkeya,  Shiva's 
six-headed  son,  the  god  of  war,  riding  a  peacock  ; 
Vishnu,  and  Durga. 

The  young  Brahman  priest  explained  that  there 
are  not  so  many  deities  worshipped  in  India  as  is 
sometimes  supposed.  Vishnu  and  Shiva,  under 
their  various  forms,  their  wives,  Shiva's  two  sons 
and  the  monkey-god  Hanuman,  complete  the  list 
of  those  who  have  temples  dedicated  to  them. 

The  three  chief  gods,  all  manifestations  of 
Brahm  the  supreme  spirit,  are  Brahma,  Vishnu, 
and  Shiva,  and  there  are  only  two  places  in  India — 
Poshkara  or  Pokhar  near  Ajmere,  and  at  Idar,  near 
Ahmedabad — where  Brahma  is  worshipped.  He 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Supreme  God 
Brahmwho  is,  as  it  were,  the  eternallyevolving  life, 


54  POONA 

forever  takingfresh  shape,  and  then  forever  drawing 
back  into  formlessness.  He  is  an  impersonal, 
spiritual  Being,  pervading  everything,  but  he  can 
never  be  worshipped  except  by turningthe  thoughts 
inwards,  and  has  no  temple  in  India.  His  first 
manifestation  was  in  the  triple  personality  of 
Brahma,  the  Creator ;  Vishnu,  the  Preserver ; 
Shiva,  the  Destroyer  and  Re-creator.  They  are 
typified  as  the  Supreme  God  by  the  letters  A.U.M. 
composing  the  mystic  syllable  Om  with  which  all 
acts  of  worship  begin. 

These  three  are  all  equal,  and  their  functions 
apparently  interchangeable :  each  may  in  turn 
become  Paramesvara,  Parbrahm  or  Supreme  Lord. 
One  of  the  Hindu  poets  expresses  it  thus  : 

In  those  three  Persons  the  one  god  was  shown 
Each  first  in  place,  each  last — not  one  alone ; 
Of  Shiva,  Vishnu,  Brahma,  each  may  be 
First,  second,  third,  among  the  blessed  Three. 

These  three,  like  all  subsequently  emerging 
forms  of  life,  will  eventually  be  reabsorbed  into  the 
divine  formlessness  of  Brahma.  The  Hindus  be- 
lieve it  to  be  impossible  to  draw  any  line  of  separa- 
tion between  different  forms  of  life  :  inanimate 
objects,  stocks  and  stones,  plants  or  animals  and 
men,  demigods,  gods — they  are  all  liable  to  pass 
into  each  other,  from  a  blade  of  grass  to  Brahm, 
and  all  will  return  to  Brahm  and  shapeless,  un- 
conscious impersonality  in  the  end. 

Of  the  triad  of  gods,  Brahma  is  represented,  as 
we  saw  him  at  Elephanta,  with  four  heads  and 
arms,  holding  a  spoon  and  vase  for  lustral  cere- 


Safasvati 


DurgaorKali 


r^ 


Rama 


56  ■  POONA 

monies,  a  rosary,  and  a  roll  of  the  Vedas.  His  wife, 
Saraswati,  rides  a  peacock  and  holds  a  musical 
instrument.  Vishnu,  whose  worship  was  at  one 
time  far  more  popular  than  at  present,  is  said  to 
have  become  incarnate  nine  times,  the  last  time  in 
the  form  of  Buddha.  He  holds  in  his  four  hands  a 
shell,  a  club,  a  quoit,  and  a  lotus  flower,  and  his 
wife,  Lakshmi,  sometimes  represented  on  a  snake, 
is  said  to  have  sprung  from  the  foam  of  the  ocean  : 
she  is  rather  a  favourite  with  the  shopkeeper  caste. 
Devotion  to  Rama  and  Krishna,  two  of  Vishnu's 
incarnations,  are  very  popular  all  over  India.  Sir 
Monier  Williams  says  that  it  is  a  form,  of  the 
worship  of  Vishnu,  as  Rama  or  Krishna,  which 
alone  of  all  native  faiths  possesses  the  elements  of 
a  genuine  religion,  and  "has  most  common  ground 
with  Christianity,  as  it  attempts  to  satisfy  the 
yearnings  of  the  human  heart  for  faith,  love,  and 
prayer,  rather  than  knowledge  and  works."  Never- 
theless, Shiva  is  "  Mahadeo" — the  great  god — and, 
in  spite  of  the  coldness  and  severity  of  his  system 
and  his  stern  asceticism,  Shiva  is  perhaps  the  most 
generally  venerated  of  the  triad.  Still,  neither 
Vishnu  nor  Shiva  have  ever  been  paramount  in 
India,  though  their  votaries  have  fought  many 
bitter  battles  at  Hardwar  and  other  sacred  spots,  as 
to  which  of  the  two  should  have  the  supremacy. 
Shiva's  wife,  the  Devi,  the  goddess,  is  worshipped 
not  only  as  Parbati,  the  goddess  of  beauty  and  love, 
but  also  as  Durga,  and  Kali  the  terrible.  The 
image  of  Ganesh  or  Gan-pati,  the  elephant-headed 
god  of  good  luck,  is  to  be  seen  everywhere,  smeared 


AN    EDUCATED    BRAHMAN  57 

with  red  paint ;  he  is  the  giver  of  practical  wisdom 
andworldly  success,  and  therein  lies  the  secretof  his 
great  popularity.  His  image  is  met  with  all  over 
the  country,  and  worshipped  by  every  sect.  He  is 
essentially  the  homely  village  god,  and  controls  the 
hosts  of  evil  spirits,  who,  the  terror-haunted  vil- 
lager believes,  are  ever  plotting  evil  and  on  the 
watch  to  harass  and  torment  him,  and  to  impede  all 
undertakings.  Consequently,  although  Ganesh  has 
few  temples  dedicated  solely  to  him,  in  all  cere- 
monies— except  funerals — and  at  the  beginning  of 
all  new  enterprises,  his  name  is  first  invoked. 

The  palace  adjoining  these  temples  was  that  of 
the  Peshwa.  It  is  in  ruins,  having  been  struck  by 
lightning  just  before  the  battle  of  Kirkee.  Our 
guide  told  us  a  legend  to  account  for  the  numbers 
of  mango-trees  planted  beneath  in  the  plain.  The 
last  Peshwa  had  no  son,  but  a  wise  priest  told  him 
the  gods  would  give  him  one,  if  he  planted  a 
number  of  fruit-trees  round  the  town  ;  he  planted  a 
lakh  of  mangoes,  but  it  had  no  effect,  and  he  never 
had  a  son.  The  priest's  comment  was  naive  ;  he 
said,  "You  know  they  were  very  ignorant  in  those 
days  and  very  superstitious.  They  believed  the 
gods  could  give  them  a  son ;  but  we  are  nowcivilised 
and  well  educated,  and,  like  the  English,  know 
better  than  to  believe  that  the  gods  give  us  sons." 

One  wonders  indeed  by  what  mental  process  an 
educated  Brahman,  who  has  been  trained  to  think 
accurately,  ever  can,  without  becoming  utterly  de- 
moralised and  entirely  losing  all  faith  in  anything 
higher  than  himself,  bring  himself  to  acquiesce 


58  POONA 

in  the  extravagances  of  the  Hindu  Pantheon  and 
play  a  part  in  a  system  which  encourages  so  many 
strange  and  monstrous  superstitions  and  such 
hideous  idolatry.  There  has,  however,  always  been 
a  chasm  between  the  superstitions  of  the  masses 
and  the  philosophy  of  the  cultivated  classes  in  India, 
for  Hinduismis/<3;;'^;f^^//(?;/<;^  an  all -comprehensive 
fold,  so  that  the  intelligent  and  cultivated  Brahman 
has  probably  always  had  some  method  of  mental 
engineering  by  which  to  explain  away  the  idols,  as 
simplyaids  to  devotion,  and  as  enabling  the  masses 
to  form  some  idea  of  the  countless  manifestations  of 
the  Supreme  God.  In  its  infinite  adaptability  to  the 
infinite  vanity  of  the  human  mind  is  said  to  lie  the 
strength  of  Hinduism  :  "  It  appeals  to  all,  philo- 
sopher, man  of  the  world,  the  poet,  the  lover  of 
seclusion;  and  yet  it  allows  every  variety  of  idolatry, 
and  sanctions  the  most  degrading  superstition."  It 
is  this  which  renders  it  essential  that  missionaries 
in  India,  if  their  influence  is  to  be  constructive  as 
well  as  destructive,  should  be  not  merely  fervent 
Christians,  but  men  of  the  highest  culture  and 
widest  sympathy. 

When  the  young  priest  had  shown  us  over  the 
temples — or  rather  round,  for  we  were  not  allowed 
to  go  in — he  brought  to  us  his  old  father.  He  was 
clothed  simply  in  an  ancient  yellow  rag,  and  I  think 
he  must  have  entered  on  the  fourth  stageof  a  devout 
Brahman's  life,  when  he  abandons  all  worldly  con- 
cerns ;  but  he  conversed  most  intelligently  about 
Sir  Bartle  Frere,  whom  he  remembered  seeing  in 
1875,  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  came  to  India.  I 


RUSSIAN   VISITORS 


59 


wondered  whether  his  one  and  only  garment  had 
been  washed  since  then.  He  expressed  a  hope  that 
Sir  Bartle's  son  was  in  the  Civil  Service,  not 
the  army  :  as  "  military  officers  do  not  get  such 
good  pay  as  Civil  Service  gentlemen." 

Two  Russians  from  the  Czarewitch's  suite  had 
been  up  to  Parbati  with  Major  Spratt ;  and  the  old 


A   DOORWAY  IN  THE  TEMPLE   OF  PARBATI 


Brahman  was  much  intrigud  about  the  Russians, 
and  most  anxious  to  know  what  they  were  doing 
here,  and  whether  it  was  really  likely  they  would 
invade  India.  He  had  heard  that  the  Russians,  hav- 
ing an  unsatisfactory countryathome,  wereanxious 
to  add  India  to  their  possessions.  This,  he  appeared 
to  consider,  would  not  be  advantageous  to  the 
natives  ;  adding  that  he  believed  "  they  were  a  very 
hard  people,  and  if  they  came  they  would  compel  us 


6o  POONA 

all  to  be  Christians,  and  there  would  be  no  justice 
as  under  the  *  Inglis  Sahibs.'  "  I  was  glad  to  hear 
him  say  this,  as  the  Poona  Brahmans  have  a  bad 
reputation  as  the  most  disaffected  in  India.  It  is 
supposed  that  the  Mahratta  Brahmans  find  it 
difficult  to  forget  thecenturyof  rule  which  ended,  as 
suddenly  as  it  had  begun, in  the  loss  of  Delhi  and  of 
Poona,  and  they  have  the  reputation  of  continually 
nursing  a  smouldering  grievance.  The  house-to- 
house  visitation  at  the  time  of  the  plague  gave  rise 
to  a  good  deal  of  seditious  writing.  I  hope,  how- 
ever, it  is  true,  as  some  who  should  know  assure  us, 
that  the  belief  gains  ground  with  the  most  thought- 
ful amongst  the  natives  of  India,  princes  and 
people,  that,  with  all  its  imperfections,  the  English 
domination  affords  the  best  government  India  has 
ever  had  or  is  likely  to  have,  far  preferable  to  that  of 
any  other  nation,  and  that  prosperity  and  progress 
are  bound  up  with  its  continuance. 

To  get  to  Parbati  w^e  had  driven  through  the 
crooked  streets  of  the  native  town,  and  the  "  Ralie" 
(or  tin  and  copper)  bazaar,  which  of  course  was  as 
attractive  as  such  places  always  are.  We  had  heard 
nothing  about  the  native  town,  so  it  came  upon  us 
as  a  surprise.  In  the  Mahratta  days  the  town  was 
divided  into  seven  Peits,  or  wards,  named  after  the 
days  of  the  week,  with  an  eighth  called  the  Baital 
Peit,  or  the  devil's  quarter.  This  is  now  known  as 
''Panch  Howds" — the  five  tanks — and  iswhere  the 
son  of  our  old  friend  Mr.  Elwin^  was,  for  so  long, 
head  of  the  Cowley-Wantage  Mission.   The  mis- 

*  At  one  time  Editor  of  the  Quarterly  Review. 


THE    PLAGUE  6i 

sion  has  existed  here  about  thirty  years  ;  they  have 
founded  schools,  an  industrial  home  for  boys, 
and  a  hospital  and  dispensary,  and  have  received 
into  the  Orphanage  many  friendless  and  homeless 
children,  who  had  joined  the  crowds  of  beggars 
who  haunt  all  Indian  cities.  In  India  begging  is 
one  of  the  few  professions  out  of  which  it  is  always 
possible  to  make  a  living.  It  is  considered  most 
unlucky  ever  to  refuse  to  give  to  a  mendicant ;  and 
a  feast  to  the  swarms  of  beggars,  religious  and 
otherwise,  who  perambulate  the  streets  in  troops, 
is  believed  to  be  a  sure  way  to  acquire  merit. 

The  missionaries  had  some  terrible  experiences 
in  Poona  at  the  time  of  the  plague  in  1899,  ^s  they 
remained  at  their  posts  in  a  most  self-devoted  man- 
ner. The  pestilence  carried  off  20,000  people,  and 
travelled  steadily  and  rapidly  from  house  to  house, 
hardly  sparing  a  family  in  the  doomed  city.  Thou- 
sands fled  from  the  town  and  crowded  into  the 
neighbouring  villages,  or  camped  out  in  the  open, 
carrying  the  plague  into  country  districts  which 
might  have  escaped. 

One  of  the  Homes  had  to  be  moved  to  the  segre- 
gation camp,  where  all  persons  who  had  had  any 
contact  with  plague  were  detained  for  ten  days' 
quarantine.  One  of  the  Wantage  Sisters  very 
pluckily  accompanied  the  boys  to  the  rough 
quarters  of  this  great  heathen  camp.  About  thirty 
cases  from  the  mission  were  taken  to  the  plague 
hospital,  where  long  huts — wooden-frame  build- 
ings covered  with  matting,  and  roofed  in  with 
grass — erected  in  a  waste  bit  of  land,  served  the 


62  POONA 

purpose  of  wards.  The  influx  of  patients  was  so 
overwhelming  that  the  staff  were  quite  unable  to 
cope  with  it  adequately :  at  one  time  as  many  as 
ninety  per  cent,  died,  the  supply  of  coffins  ran  short, 
and  the  bodies  lay  in  heaps  awaiting  burial.  Only 
half  the  mission  plague-cases  died,  but  Sister 
Gertrude,  who  had  cheerfully  and  courageously 
borne  the  brunt  of  the  exposure  and  anxiety,  never 
recovered  the  strain,  and  died  soon  afterwards. 

The  progress  of  Christianity  in  India  has  been 
so  extremely  slow  as  hardly  to  merit  the  term. 
It  is  pathetic  to  read  in  Bishop  Heber's  Journal 
the  glowing  anticipations  he  formed  in  1825  of 
the  changes  likely  to  be  the  result  of  the  work 
then  being  undertaken  ;  but  though  progress  has 
so  far  been  very  slow,  yet  I  believe  the  last  Indian 
census  has  caused  some  astonishment  to  statesmen 
in  India,  by  bringing  out  prominently  the  extra- 
ordinary relative  advance  of  Christianity  during 
the  last  ten  years,  compared  with  that  of  any  other 
religion  in  India. 

There  are  no  striking  or  important  buildings  in 
Poona  city.  The  Peshwa's  castle  was  burnt  down 
in  1827,  and  only  the  massive  walls  remain,  close 
to  the  lane  where,  under  the  Mahratta  regime, 
political  offenders  were  trampled  to  death  by  an 
elephant.  The  last  Peshwa  watched  from  a  window 
in  the  palace  the  ghastly  death  in  this  manner  of 
a  Maharaja  Holkar,  in  the  lane  below. 

There  are,  however,  many  quaint  nooks  and 
corners  in  the  city,  and  we  passed  some  good 
doorways,  and  quaint  Hindu  temples  and  shrines. 


CHARACTERISTIC   SCENES  63 

which,  though  perhaps  they  cannot  be  admired  in 
themselves,  always  look  well,  standing  out  with 
their  overhanging  trees  from  amongst  the  lath 
and  mud  of  the  native  houses,  and  the  brightly 
painted  shops  with  deep  shadows  within.  I  found 
time  to  make  a  drawing  of  a  fantastically  shaped 
doorway,  wreathed  with  a  garland  of  marigold, 
and  of  a  lazy  boy,  whose  time  appeared  to  be  of 
little  value,  sitting  on  a  projecting  ledge  swinging 
his  legs.  We  were  amused  by  all  kinds  of  enter- 
taining little  incidents  in  the  native  bazaars — girls 
washing  the  family  linen  in  copper  pots  in  the 
street,  or  a  goat  lying  on  the  family  bedstead,  with 
another  looking  on  from  the  upstairs  balcony ;  and 
once  a  big  cow  came  bouncing  down  the  front 
stairs,  and  upset  a  dignified  old  gentleman  who 
sat,  smoking  his  hookah,  in  the  gutter  below. 

We  had  several  pleasant  excursions  towards  the 
close  of  the  day  in  the  delightful  Indian  evening, 
when  silence  descends  and  the  lines  of  pungent- 
smelling  smoke  become  quickly  visible  in  hazy, 
low-lying  lines.  Once  we  went  to  the  Boat  Club, 
whence  we  got  a  very  pretty  view  of  a  bend  in  the 
river,  with  Parbati  in  the  middle  distance  and  the 
hills  beyond  against  the  saffron-coloured  sky. 
Another  evening  our  host  sent  on  horses  and 
carriages  half-way — 'Maid  a  dak,"  as  it  is  called — 
and  we  drove  to  the  Kadakwazla  Lake  for  tea,  and 
then  sat  and  watched  the  sunset  and  the  moon  rise 
over  the  water  in  the  soft,  smoky  silence  of  the 
Eastern  evening. 

It  was  really  chilly  as  we  drove  back  to  dinner. 


64 


POONA 


Later  on  that  evening  Major  Spratt  accompanied 
me  to  the  station,  where  my  "  boy  "  made  up  my 
bed  in  the  waiting-room,  and  there  I  slept — or 
tried  to  sleep — until  the  3  a.m.  train  for  Bijapur 
came  in. 


CHAPTER  III 
BIJAPUR 

I  WAS  in  a  compartment  of  the  night  train  from 
Poona,  and  was  awakened  by  a  strange  and  noisy 
patter  of  many  feet  above  my  head.  We  had  just 
come  to  a  halt  at  Sholapur  station.  I  quickly  rose, 
and,  stretching  out  of  the  carriage  window,  dis- 
covered a  party  of  light-hearted  monkeys  dropping 
from  an  overhanging  tree  and  chasing  one  another, 
with  many  an  antic,  along  the  carriage  roofs. 

At  Hotgi  Junction  we  got  an  excellent  breakfast, 
and  saw  the  last  of  the  Governor  of  Madras, 
who  had  arrived  at  Government  House,  Bombay, 
just  before  we  left,  on  his  way  to  take  up  office 
at  Madras.  Here  I  changed  on  to  the  narrow  gauge 
and  began  a  very  tedious  progress  toward  Bijapur, 
stopping  long  at  every  station,  and  at  one  as  much 
as  an  hour.  The  trains  were  crowded  with  natives, 
and  how  they  jabber  ! 

The  country  is  monotonous  and  very  flat ;  in 
places  it  reminded  me  somewhat  of  the  surround- 
ings of  Biskra,  dry  and  burned  up ;  dotted  over 
the  plain  were  mud  villages,  and  small  groups  of 
stunted  trees  like  thorns  in  the  distance;  the 
occasional  patches  of  grain  crops,  now  ripe,  were 


66  BIJAPUR 

mostly  burnt  a  dull  brown.  The  human  element 
in  the  prospect  consisted  of  very  black  people,  with 
very  few  and  ragged  clothes,  who  here  and  there, 
all  along  the  line,  were  tending  goats  and  buffaloes 
and  lived  in  most  elementary  grass  and  straw 
huts. 

Some  hours  later — whilst  crossing  a  wide  and 
treeless  but  fertile  plain,  interspersed  with  rare 
flocks  of  small  antelopes  grazing  quietly,  regardless 
of  the  train — I  caught  the  first  sight  of  Bijapur, 
with  the  vast  dome  of  the  Gol  Gumbaz  bright  in 
the  sunshine. 

We  reached  Bijapur  late  in  the  afternoon,  and 
I  drove  at  once  to  the  dak  bungalow  to  deposit 
my  baggage ;  then  started  off  in  a  tonga,  with  a 
pair  of  capital  ponies  harnessed  to  a  yoke,  to  see 
as  much  as  daylight  would  permit  of  this  once 
magnificent  Mohammedan  city,  now  a  city  of  the 
dead.  The  place  I  stopped  in,  the  "dak  bungalow," 
was  originally  a  mosque  attached  to  the  great  Gol 
Gumbaz,  which  I  had  seen  across  the  plain,  and  of 
which  more  hereafter. 

Major  Spratt  had  kindly  telegraphed  from 
Poona  to  the  police  officer  here  to  ask  him  to  take 
me  round.  Unfortunately  he  was  away,  so  my 
only  resource  was  to  get  a  native  guide,  who  could 
not  speak  a  word  of  English,  and  to  let  my  servant 
interpret  for  me,  but  his  English  is  of  the  vilest, 
and  his  translations  were  almost  entirely  incom- 
prehensible. I  should  have  been  quite  at  sea 
without  Cousen's  most  useful  book.  Bijapur  of 
to-day  consists  of  the   partly  ruined    and    very 


ITS   TURKISH    ORIGIN 


67 


much  deserted  remains  of  the  once  glorious 
city.  Its  palmy  days,  when  it  was  equal  in  splen- 
dour to  Agra  and  Delhi,  were  from  1501, — when 
Yusaf  Khan  declared  himself  its  King — until  1686, 
when  it  was  taken  by  Aurangzeb.  Since  then  it 
has  suffered  violence  and  fallen  into  decay,  but  it 
still  contains  a  number  of  splendid  buildings. 
Unlike  the  other  Mohammedan  states  in  India, 


WAITING  FOR   THE  TRAIN 


which  all  owe  their  origin  to  invasion  from  the 
North- West,  Bijapur  claims  to  have  been  founded 
by  an  adventurer-prince  who  came  direct  from 
Turkey;  and  there  is  certainly  much  in  the  cha- 
racter of  the  architecture  and  ornament  to  support 
the  theory  of  Turkish  origin. 

There  still  existed  in  Turkey  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  on  the  decease  of  the  Sultan,  the  ancient 
custom  of  putting  to  death  all  his  sons,  with  the 
exception  of  the  heir.  It  may  have  been  a  simple 
way   of   avoiding   undesirable   disputes,    but    it 


68  BIJAPUR 

tended  to  create  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of 
those  wives  whose  sons  were  not  likely  to  succeed 
to  the  throne,  when  the  health  of  their  lord  and 
master  began  to  fail. 

Such  was  the  state  of  mind  of  the  mother  of 
Yusaf  on  the  death  of  his  father,  Sultan  Murad, 
in  1 45 1.  Then  she  heard  that  Yusaf  was  to  be 
strangled,  and  acting  on  an  inspiration  she 
hastened  with  her  boy  to  a  merchant  from  Persia 
named  Khojah  Imad-ud-din  Gargastani,  and  ex- 
changed her  son  for  a  slave  who  bore  a  striking 
resemblance  to  him.  The  next  morning  the  re- 
port was  spread  throughout  Constantinople  that 
young  Yusaf  had  died  in  the  night,  and  the  body 
of  the  little  slave  was  given  a  royal  burial. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  merchant,  finding  that  it 
was  to  his  interest  to  act  discreetly,  quietly  with- 
drew to  his  native  place  Saver,  taking  the  real 
Yusaf  with  him.  There,  and  subsequently  at 
Kassim,  Yusaf  remained  under  the  faithful  guar- 
dianship of  Khojah  Imad-ud-din  Gargastani, 
until  one  day  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision  a  mys- 
terious person,  who  bade  him  proceed  to  Hindu- 
stan, where  his  ambitions  would  be  realised,  and 
where  after  experiencing  hardships  and  difficulties 
he  would  gain  a  kingdom  for  himself.  "  Your 
bread,"  said  the  mysterious  messenger,  ''is  al- 
ready baked  for  you  in  the  Deccan." 

Fired  with  a  desire  to  obey  the  call,  Yusaf 
— readily  persuading  the  merchant  to  accom- 
pany him — started  in  the  year  1459  on  his  journey 
eastwards.  At  Dabul  they  tarried,  but  a  second 


SULTAN    YUSAF  69 

appearance  of  the  vision  spurred  the  young  prince 
on,  and  they  eventually  reached  Bidar  in  the 
Deccan  and  the  Court  of  Sultan  Muhammad 
Bahmani.  It  so  happened  that  Imad-ud-din  was 
known  to  the  Sultan,  and  through  his  influence 
Yusaf  was  taken  into  court  employ.  He  soon 
became  a  favourite,  as  he  excelled  in  all  athletic 
and  manly  exercises,  and  quickly  was  raised,  by 
his  royal  master,  to  an  important  position  in  the 
state. 

His  rapid  promotion  and  the  favour  which  he 
enjoyed  aroused  the  envy  of  the  less  fortunate,  and 
whilst  he  was  absent  in  the  Carnatic — where  he  had 
been  sent,  in  command  of  a  large  force,  to  quell  a 
disturbance — his  enemies  were  busy  in  intrigue 
and  did  their  best  to  poison  the  mind  of  the  Sultan 
against  him. 

His  success,  however,  in  that  as  in  other  expe- 
ditions, notably  in  that  against  the  State  of 
Bijapur,  only  served  to  increase  the  confidence 
which  his  master  placed  in  him,  and  he  was 
eventually  appointed  Governor  of  Bijapur  with  the 
title  of  Adil  Khan. 

On  the  death  of  Muhammad  the  State  of  Bidar 
fell  on  evil  times.  His  successor  did  not  possess 
the  confidence  of  his  people,  and  Yusaf,  having  a 
strong  force  at  his  disposal,  rebelled  against  his 
new  master,  openly  declaring  his  independence. 
He  made  himself  master  of  Bijapur,  and  extended 
his  dominions  to  the  sea-coast,  even  wresting  Goa 
from  the  Portuguese.  He  founded  in  1489  the  Adil 
Shahi  dynasty,  which,  after  a  brilliant  career  of 


70  BIJAPUR 

nearly  two  hundred  years,  was  eventually  over- 
thrown by  Aurangzeb  in  1686.  A  hundred  years 
later  it  passed  to  the  Peshwa,  then  to  the  Rajah  of 
Satara,  and  eventually  with  the  rest  of  his  pos- 
sessions into  the  hands  of  the  British. 

The  history  of  Bijapur  is  a  history  of  great 
warriors  and  great  builders. 

Surrounded  as  was  the  territory  of  Bijapur  by 
warlike  chiefs  on  all  sides,  it  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  it  would  remain  long  at  peace. 
With  or  without  pretext,  the  kings  of  Bijapur 
were  constantly  either  making  inroads  on  their 
neighbours'  country  or  in  turn  defending  them- 
selves from  attack,  or  for  mutual  greed  and 
aggrandisement  coming  to  terms  with  some  chiefs 
with  whom  they  had  but  recently  been  in  bloody 
conflict,  in  order  to  make  a  combined  attack  upon 
a  third,  and  carry  fire  and  sword  up  to  the  gates 
of  his  fortress.  Few  histories  afford  a  better 
lesson  in  the  art  of  intrigue  or  more  tales  of  wild 
romance  than  that  of  the  Court  of  Bijapur,  es- 
pecially during  the  intervals  when  the  throne  was 
occupied  by  a  minor  and  the  government  was  in 
the  hands  of  a  regent. 

The  buildings  of  Bijapur  are  unique.  Though 
they  have  been  sadly  mutilated — first  by  depreda- 
tions of  the  Mahrattas  in  the  eighteenth  century 
and  secondly  by  long  neglect — there  still  remains 
much  to  be  seen  of  this  once  rich  and  splendid  city. 
For  this  we  have  to  thank  the  efforts  of  successive 
Residents  at  Satara,  from  Mountstuart  Elphin- 
stone  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  who  obtained  a  large 


72  BIJAPUR 

grant  from  the  Bombay  Government  for  the  pre- 
servation of  the  buildings. 

Mosques,  palaces  and  tombs  innumerable  show 
the  taste  and  greatness  of  its  Mussalman  rulers. 

The  walls,  six  miles  in  circumference,  still  in 
great  part  remain.  In  places  they  are  almost  levelled 
to  the  ground, butin  other  parts  they  are,  with  their 
fortified  gateways,  fairly  intact.  The  area  which 
these  walls  enclose,  however,  only  forms  the  centre 
of  a  once  much  larger  city,  indicated  by  small 
scattered  domes  that  are  seen  beyond.  The  citadel 
forms  the  nucleus  of  the  whole,  and  in  and  near  it 
the  chief  buildings  stand.  All  are  carved  in  rich 
brown  volcanic  rock,  overgrown  and  partly  hidden 
by  the  jungle  of  prickly  pear,  interspersed  with 
tamarind  trees,  which  has  displaced  the  once  care- 
fully tended  and  beautiful  gardens. 

Grouped  about  under  the  venerable  walls  of  the 
larger  buildings  are  clustered  the  mean  mud  huts 
of  the  present  native  inhabitants  of  Bijapur.  Since 
1883,  when  the  town  was  made  the  headquarters  of 
the  district,  the  Europeans  have  lived  in  the 
palaces,  tombs  and  mosques,  which  they  converted 
into  very  comfortable  quarters ;  the  change  in 
most  cases  was  sadly  to  the  detriment  of  the 
buildings. 

The  tomb  of  Khan  Muhammad  (one  of  the  two 
close  together,  known  as  the  Two  Sisters)  was  at 
the  time  of  my  visit  occupied  by  the  district 
engineer.  It  was  growing  dark  when  first  I  ap- 
proached this  tomb,  and  when  I  entered  the  gate- 
way to  get  a  near  view  of  it,    I  was  fortunate 


SPLENDID    REMAINS 


n 


enough  to  encounter  him.  I  told  him  my  errand 
and  found  him  very  pleasant  and  ready  to 
overlook  my  intrusion.  He  introduced  me  to  his 
wife  and  some  friends,  and  eventually  asked  me 


BY  THE   ROAD-SIDE 


to  come  to  breakfast  the  following  morning,  at 
10.30,  an  invitation  I  was  not  slow  in  accepting. 
He  actually  had  his  dwelling  in  the  tombs,  and 
had  converted  the  great  vaulted  hall  under  the 
dome  (sixteen  sided  and  fifty  feet  in  diameter)  into 
a  drawing-room  for  his  wife,  and  a  charming 
room  it  makes.  The  vault  below,  where  are  the 


74  BIJAPUR 

tombs,  is  his  office,  and  his  bedroom  is  a  small 
mosque,  with  the  mihrab  converted  into  a  cup- 
board for  hanging  clothes.  What  a  desecration ! 

The  post  office  occupies  a  mosque,  as  does  also 
the  dak  bungalow,  where  I  took  up  my  quarters. 
This  mosque  has  a  very  considerable  dome  and 
two  tall  red  brick  minarets.  It  consists  of  three 
aisles  of  five  bays  and  is  open  on  the  east  side. 
Each  bay  (of  three  aisles  deep)  forms  a  suite  of 
rooms  for  a  traveller.  The  east  or  outer  aisle  is 
the  verandah,  the  middle  aisle  forms  a  sitting- 
room,  and  the  inner  a  bedroom,  whilst  the  dividing 
arches,  to  a  height  of  about  ten  feet,  are  closed  by 
a  curtain  wall.  A  bedstead  is  provided,  but  the 
traveller  brings  his  own  bedding,  and  his  servant 
brings  in  the  food.  Though  this  mosque  in  itself  is 
a  building  of  considerable  beauty  of  design,  it  is 
quite  eclipsed  by  the  size  of  the  great  Gol  Gumbaz, 
which  stands  on  the  same  platform  with  it — six 
hundred  feet  square — and  to  which  it  is  attached. 

The  Gol  Gumbaz  (or  Round  Dome),  the  mauso- 
leum of  Muhammad  Adil  Shah  (died  1656)  is 
an  imposing  edifice,  approached  by  a  stately  gate- 
way. It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  buildings 
in  Bijapur,  both  on  account  of  its  size  and  of  its 
constructive  boldness. 

The  kings  of  Bijapur,  during  the  later  part  of 
the  dynasty,  vied  with  one  another  in  the  magni- 
ficence of  the  tombs  which  they  erected  for  them- 
selves. Ibrahim  II.  built  a  tomb  (the  Ibrahim 
Roza)  of  surpassing  beauty,  lavishly  enriched 
with  ornament.  Muhammad's  tomb  exceeded  that 


DWELLING    IN    THE   TOMBS  75 

of  his  predecessor  in  grandeur  of  dimensions  and 
constructive  skill ;  whilst  AH  Adil  Shah  com- 
menced a  mausoleum  for  himself  which — if  his 
death  had  not  put  a  stop  to  its  progress — would 
have  surpassed  every  other  building  in  India,  both 
in  magnificence  and  size. 

For  some  reason  or  another  it  was  the  Gol 
Gumbaz  which  attracted  me  more  than  any  other 
building  at  Bijapur  :  not  on  account  of  any  special 
beauty  of  detail — for  it  is  singularly  wanting  in 
ornament,  and  within  is  perfectly  plain — but  be- 
cause of  its  vastness  and  dignity ;  of  the  unique 
character  of  its  dome ;  and,  partly  perhaps,  also 
because  of  my  greater  familiarity  with  it,  lodged 
as  I  was  at  its  feet,  and  gazing  up  into  its  face, 
from  my  chamber  in  the  mosque.  I  got  up  to 
see  it  by  sunrise,  and  it  was  the  last  thing  I  saw, 
with  the  moonlight  playing  on  its  surface,  as  I  lay 
down  at  night. 

The  Gol  Gumbaz  stands  four  square  upon  its 
platform,  with  octagonal  towers  at  the  angles 
seven  storeys  high.  In  the  centre  rises  the  great 
dome,  which  constitutes  its  most  striking  fea- 
ture and  covers  a  larger  area  than  any  other  in 
the  world.  Fergusson  writing  of  this  building 
says : 

*'  As  will  be  seen  from  the  plan,  it  is  internally 
a  square  apartment,  135  ft.  each  way :  its  area 
consequently  is  18,225  sq.  ft.,  while  that  of  the 
Pantheon  at  Rome  is  within  the  walls  only  15,833 
sq.  ft.  .  .  .  At  the  height  of  57  ft.  from  the  floor 
line  the  hall  begins  to  contract  by  a  series  of 


76  BIJAPUR 

pendentives,  as  ingenious  as  they  are  beautiful,  to 
a  circular  opening  97  ft.  in  diameter.  On  the 
platform  of  these  pendentives  the  dome  is  erected 
124  ft.  in  diameter,  thus  leaving  a  gallery  more 
than  12  ft.  wide  all  round  the  interior.  Internally 
the  dome  is  178  ft.  high,  externally  198  ft.  high  : 
its  thickness  being  about  10  ft. 


PLAN  OF  THE  GOL  GUMBAZ 


"  The  most  ingenious  and  novel  part  of  the 
construction  of  this  dome  is  the  way  its  lateral  or 
outward  thrust  is  counteracted.  This  was  ac- 
complished by  forming  the  pendentives  so  that 
they  not  only  cut  off  the  angles,  but  that,  as  shown 
on  the  plan,  their  arches  intersect  one  another, 
and  form  a  very  considerable  mass  of  masonry 
perfectly  stable  in  itself,  and  by  its  weight,  acting 
inwards,  counteracting  any  thrust  that  can  pos- 
sibly be  brought  upon  it  by  the  pressure  of  the 
dome,     If  the  whole  edifice  thus  balanced  has  any 


THE    GOL   GUMBAZ  ^^ 

tendency  to  move  it  is  to  fall  inwards,  which  from 
its  circular  form  is  impossible  ;  while  the  action 
of  the  weight  of  the  pendentives,  being  in  the 
opposite  direction  to  that  of  the  dome,  it  acts 
like  a  tie,  and  keeps  the  whole  in  equilibrium 
without  interfering  at  all  with  the  outline  of  the 
dome." 

One  of  the  first  buildings  I  visited,  about  half 
a  mile  from  the  Gol  Gumbaz,  was  the  Jumma 
Musjid — a  splendid  domed  building  begun  byAli 
Adil  Shah  I.  (i 557-1 579)  and  continued  by  his 
successors,  but  never  finished.  Its  stately  mass 
is  conspicuous  from  a  distance  rising  above  the 
trees.  It  is  entered  on  the  north  side  by  a 
fine  gateway;  the  chief  entrance,  which  would 
have  been  on  the  east  side,  was  never  built. 
The  interior  of  the  mosque  proper,  divided 
into  five  aisles  of  nine  bays  by  massive  square 
piers,  is  striking  from  its  exquisite  simplicity  of 
design  and  prevailing  whiteness  of  tone.  All  the 
colour  in  this  impressively  solemn  building  is 
concentrated  in  the  Mihrab;  it  is  gorgeously  gilded 
and  enamelled  with  delicate  arabesques,  and 
designs  of  the  most  varied  character,  interwoven 
with  inscriptions  intended  to  recall  the  name  of 
the  builder,  and  to  remind  one  of  the  transitory 
nature  of  life  and  beauty.  The  grandly  propor- 
tioned dome  is  rather  flatter  than  most  Eastern 
domes,  and,  like  that  of  the  Gol  Gumbaz,  is  raised 
on  pendentives.  There  is  a  wealth  of  beautiful 
detail  in  the  windows.  Even  in  its  incomplete 
state  it   is   one  of  the  finest  and  most  graceful 


78  BIJAPUR 

mosques  in  India,  and  as  large  as  an  English 
cathedral.  The  great  cloistered  courtyard  was  in- 
tended to  hold  8000  worshipers,  and  was,  in  its 
palmy  days,  strewn  with  beautiful  velvet  carpets, 
all,  alas  !  carried  off  by  Aurangzeb. 

Near  here  is  a  very  delightful  little  bit  of 
architecture,  the  Mehtar  Mahal — the  gateway  to  a 
small  mosque — which  comes  as  a  surprise  as  one 
goes  along  the  road.  It  is  a  small  but  most 
charmingly  original  building,  in  form  a  square 
tower  three  storeys  high,  with  minarets  at  two 
corners  ;  and,  about  its  balconied  and  projecting 
windows,  it  is  richly  ornamented  with  intricate 
stone  carving  m  a  mixed  Hindu  and  Mohammedan 
style.  Its  main  feature  is  a  beautiful  oriel  window 
which  projects  from  the  second  floor,  supported 
by  exquisite  corbels  with  rows  of  hanging  drops. 
The  fac^ade  of  this  fascinating  window  extends  on 
either  side,  and  formsthefrontof  a  balcony  before  two 
smaller  windows.  And  the  whole  is  shaded  by  a  wide 
projecting  canopy  of  stone,  which  rests  on  most 
delicately  sculptured  brackets,  a  marvel  of  stone 
carving,  enriched  with  a  perforated  design.  It  is 
wonderful  that  this  lace-work  of  ornament  should 
have  stood  for  two  centuries  without  snapping. 

Thence  I  went  to  the  Citadel,  a  fortress  sur- 
rounded by  a  moat,  containing  most  of  the  public 
buildings,  and  many  courts  and  gardens  and 
palaces,  of  which  the  ruined  Sat  Manzil  (the  Palace 
of  Seven  Storeys)  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able. 

Into  the  walls  of  the  Citadel  are  built  many 


A    MAHRATTA    PRINCESS 


79 


ancient  pillars  and  sculptured  stones,  probably 
taken  from  the  Jain  temples  which  stood  here  when 
the  Mohammedans  stormed  the  Citadel.  Many  wild 
tales  of  adventure  are  connected  with  this  spot,  but 
none  more  striking  than  that  of  Yusaf  s  widowed 
Queen  Bubujee  Khanum,  a  Mahratta  princess  by 


THE  DOME  OF  THE  JUMMA   MUSJID 


birth.  During  the  minority  of  her  son,  she  de- 
fended the  Citadel  and  his  life  against  a  traitorous 
regent.  Clad  in  armour,  she  fought  amongst  the 
soldiers,  until  a  band  of  faithful  Moguls,  rallying 
to  her  support,  reached  the  brave  defenders  by 
means  of  ropes  let  down  from  the  ramparts.  One 
of  the  principal  assailants,  Saftar  Khan,  was  killed 
by  a  great  stone  rolled  down  on  him,  by  the  young 


8o  BIJAPUR 

king,  from  the  parapet  of  the  Citadel,  after  which 
the  assault  collapsed. 

One  of  the  big  guns  used  in  the  final  siege  of 
Aurangzeb,  the  celebrated  Malik-i-Maidan  (King 
of  the  Plain),  for  which  Bijapur  is  famous,  lies 
still  on  a  bastion  south  of  the  Shahpur  Gate. 
Fortunately  the  proposal  to  place  it  in  the 
British  Museum  came  to  nothing.  The  gun  is 
5  ft.  in  diameter,  and  a  full-grown  man  can  sit 
upright  in  its  mouth  ;  it  weighs  forty-two  tons, 
and  of  its  powers  marvellous  tales  are  told.  It  was 
cast  at  Ahmednagar,  two  hundred  miles  away,  and 
was  carried  off  by  one  of  the  Bijapur  kings,  who 
brought  it  here  through  a  roadless  country.  It  is 
of  fine  bronze,  with  a  considerable  admixture  of 
silver,  and  has  a  beautifully  finished  surface.  A 
monster,  represented  at  its  mouth  swallowing  an 
elephant,  reminded  me  of  one  of  Orcagna's  pictures 
of  the  mouth  of  Hell.  I  was  not  surprised  to  hear 
that  the  Hindus  used,  till  quite  recently,  to  worship 
it,  burning  a  light  perpetually  before  the  muzzle. 

In  a  very  ruinous  condition  outside  the  moat  of 
the  inner  citadel  is  the  Asra-i-Sharif,  or  Palace  of 
the  "  The  Hair  of  the  Noble  one."  This  is  a  large, 
heavy-looking  building,  designed  for  a  Court  of 
Justice  in  1646,  and  it  consists  of  a  spacious  hall, 
entirely  open  on  the  east  side,  facing  a  great  tank 
and  supported  by  teak  pillars  about  60  ft.  high.  The 
west  side  is  divided  into  two  storeys,  and  here,  in  a 
frescoed  chamber,  is  the  shrine  where  the  "relic" — 
two  hairs  of  the  prophet's  beard — is  supposed  to  be 
kept ;  but  as  no  one  has  ventured  to  examine  the 


A  WAYSIDE   TOMB 


82       '  BIJAPUR 

reliquary  since  a  midnight  raid  of  thieves  many 
years  ago,  the  annual  pilgrimages  to  the  relics  are 
made  purely  on  a  foundation  of  faith.  In  this  part 
of  the  building  are  several  fine  old  carpets  of  good 
workmanship;  some  of  the  doors,  inlaid  with  ivory, 
must  at  one  time  have  been  fine  works  of  art,  and 
have  produced  a  very  striking  effect  in  conjunction 
with  the  gilded  walls  and  ceiling.*  The  windows, 
at  the  back  of  these  upper  chambers,  look  down 
upon  the  piers  of  a  bridge  across  the  moat  which 
used  to  connect  this  palace  with  the  Citadel. 

The  main  gateway  into  the  Citadel,  close  by,  has 
been  converted  into  the  Station  Church — and  a 
beautiful  little  church  it  makes.  One  end  of  the 
gateway  has  been  filled  up  by  a  window,  and  the 
other  is  occupied  by  the  door.  The  vaulted  roof 
is  supported  by  two  columns,  and  the  whole  is 
richly  decorated  with  Saracenic  incised  plaster 
work  ;  like  that  at  the  Alhambra.  Close  by  is  the 
Anand  Mahal  (Palace  of  Delight),  where  lived  the 
ladies  of  the  harem.  It  was  built  by  Ibrahim  II. 
in  1589,  though  the  facade  was  never  finished  ; 
in  these  utilitarian  days  it  is  turned  to  account 
as  the  official  residence  for  the  Assistant  Com- 
missioner and  Judge.  To  the  west  of  it  is  the 
Gagan  Mahal  (Ali  Adil  Shah's  Hall  of  Audience), 
with  a  remarkable  and  magnificent  arch  of  very 
wide  span,  flanked  by  two  smaller  ones,  opening 

*  The  valuable  library  of  Arabic  and  other  manuscripts  was 
rescued  from  the  neglect  which  threatened  its  destruction  by  Sir 
Bartle  Frcre,  and  may  be  seen,  by  those  interested,  in  the  India 
Office  Library  at  Westminster. 


THE    SHAHPUR   GATEWAY  83 

to  the  north.  On  the  roof  was  a  gallery,  where 
the  ladies  of  the  harem  sat  to  see  the  pageants 
in  the  open  space  below,  and  whence  they  may 
have  witnessed  the  submission  of  the  king  and 
nobles  of  Bijapur  in  silver  chains  to  Aurangzeb. 
Also  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  ladies  of  the 
palace,  was  the  MakkaMusjid — aminiaturemosque 
of  great  simplicity  of  design — near  the  old  mosque 
of  Malik  Karim-ud-din.  It  is  quite  in  good  pre- 
servation, and  its  proportions  are,  as  far  as  I  could 
judge,  perfect.  The  arches  of  the  mosque  proper 
cannot  be  more  than  eight  or  ten  feet  high.  The 
rude  minarets  at  the  corners  of  the  small  courtyard 
are  of  earlier  date. 

From  here  I  drove  to  the  Shahpur  Gateway  ;  a 
motley  throng  of  passers-by  was  streaming  through 
in  the  evening  light.  An  archway  is  always  a 
picturesque  object,  but  this  old  gate — a  vista  of 
minarets  in  the  opening — was  especially  attractive 
with  its  grim  battlements  and  the  long  spikes, 
projecting  outwards  from  the  gates  themselves, 
to  prevent  the  elephants  of  an  enemy  from  butting 
up  against  them  and  battering  them  down  with 
their  heads.  About  sunset  I  made  my  way 
out  through  the  Makka  Gate  to  the  Ibrahim 
Roza,  the  great  mausoleum  of  Ibrahim  II. 
where  Aurangzeb  lived  during  the  final  siege 
of  Bijapur.  It  and  its  accompanying  mosque 
form  a  domed  group  of  great  beauty  rising  on  a 
platform  about  19  ft.  high  from  the  centre  of  what 
was  once  a  lovely  garden.  The  whole  effect  of  the 
domes,  and  the  forest  of  minarets  and  pinnacles 


84  BIJAPUR 

rising  out  of  a  shady  grove  of  dark  trees,  against 
a  brilliant  evening  sky,  was  very  striking.  The 
tomb  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  a  double 
arcade  of  seven  arches,  the  ceiling  of  which  is 
exquisitely  carved  with  verses  of  the  Koran  and 
wreaths   of    flowers,    gold    on   a   brilliant   azure 


A   CHILI-   MOl 


ground.  The  windows  are  filled  with  a  lattice- 
work of  Arabic  sentences  cut  out  of  stone  slabs, 
the  space  between  each  letter  admitting  the  light. 
This  work  is  admirably  executed,  and  is  not  sur- 
passed in  all  India.  The  vaulted  stone-slabbed 
ceiling  of  the  principal  chamber  is  of  mysterious 
construction,  being  perfectly  flat  in  the  centre  and 
supported  apparently  only  by  a  cove  projecting 


AN    ARTIST'S    PARADISE  85 

from  the  walls.  It  is  probably  kept  in  place 
by  the  remarkably  adhesive  properties  of  the 
cement,  which  rivals  that  of  the  Romans  in  this 
respect. 

I  was  greeted  on  waking  next  morning  by  a 
glorious  sunrise,  and  spent  the  greater  part  of  the 
day  in  sketching  in  this  wildly  romantic  place,  and 
I  agree  with  Meadows  Taylor  that  the  picturesque 
beauty,  arising  from  the  combination  of  fine  old 
tamarind  and  peepul  trees,  hoary  ruins,  and  distant 
views  of  the  more  perfect  buildings,  forms  a  varied 
and  very  impressive  series  of  landscapes.  The 
groups  of  palaces,  arches,  tombs,  cisterns,  gate- 
ways, minarets,  all  carved  from  the  rich  brown 
basalt  rock,  garlanded  by  creepers,  and  broken  and 
disjointed  by  trees,  are  each  in  turn  a  gem  of 
art,  and  the  whole  is  a  unique  treasury  for  the 
sketcher  or  artist. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ALLAHABAD:  THE  MEETING  OF  THE 
WATERS 

I  LEFT  Bijapur  by  a  midday  train,  having  in  my 
carriage  two  men  from  Madras  :  one,  I  think,  was 
a  judge,  but  I  did  not  discover  his  name.  They 
were  very  pleasant  travelling  companions,  and  I 
was  sorry  when  they  left  me  at  Sholapur,  where 
they  were  received  on  the  platform  by  a  little 
crowd  of  natives.  As  I  was  in  theircompany,  I  came 
in  for  part  of  the  ceremony  of  welcome.  A  wreath 
of  very  strongly  scented  flowers  was  put  round 
my  neck,  a  bouquet  pressed  into  my  hands,  the  back 
of  my  hand  smeared  with  attar  of  roses,  and  the 
palm  sprinkled  with  lavender  water.  Then  a  few 
betel  leaves,  containing  areca,  chuna,  or  lime,  &c., 
and  wrapped  in  gold  paper,  were  presented  to  me, 
and  I  felt  some  little  embarrasment  as  to  how  I 
was  to  dispose  of  all  these  things  ;  fortunately  the 
train  was  on  the  move,  I  jumped  in,  and  was  thus 
relieved  from  the  difficulties  of  the  situation,  and 
saw  my  friends  no  more. 

On  arriving  at  7  a.m.  next  morning  at  the 
Victoria  Station,  Bombay,  I  found  awaiting  me 
my  companion,  who  had  come  down  from  Poona 


88  ALLAHABAD 

by  the  previous  train,  escorted  by  Major  Spratt's 
peon.  We  went  to  church  at  8  o'clock,  and  then 
to  Watson's  Hotel  for  breakfast ;  after  lunch  with 
the  Burn-Murdochs,  who  were  as  kind  as  ever,  we 
drove  back  by  Breach  Kandyand  the  native  town, 
intending  to  stop  the  night  in  Bombay.  At  dinner, 
it  was  suddenly  suggested  that  it  would  be  wiser 
not  to  delay  our  start,  for  next  day  was  mail  day, 
when  we  should  have  less  chance  of  getting  a 
compartment  to  ourselves.  We  hurriedly  left  our 
dinner,  and,  with  superhuman  efforts,  just  suc- 
ceeded in  catching  the  express  for  Allahabad,  in 
which  we  fortunately  secured  two  communicating 
compartments  to  ourselves. 

The  country  through  which  we  passed  next 
day  was  uninteresting  and  dried  up,  and,  until  we 
reached  Itarsi  Junction,  we  ran  chiefly  through 
dusty,  scrubby  jungle  ;  then  things  improved,  and 
the  landscape  became  greener.  It  was  colder,  but 
we  were  rising  up  to  the  great  central  plains  of 
India,  and  were  prepared  for  cold  nights  at  this 
time  of  year.  Frost  greeted  us  the  next  morning, 
and  we  realised  that  we  had  left  warm  weather 
behind  us,  and  when  by  9  a.m.  we  reached  Allaha- 
bad we  were  glad  to  don  thick  winter  clothes. 

After  a  rather  tiring  journey  of  a  day  and  a 
night  from  Bijapur  to  Bombay,  and  then  a  day 
and  two  nights  on  to  Allahabad,  we  thought  well 
to  stop  three  nights  to  rest.  This  is  more  than  the 
interest  of  the  town  warrants,  but  we  had  many 
letters  to  write  and  difficult  arrangements  of  plans 
to  make,   and  the  place  is  not   wholly   without 


PAST    HISTORY  89 

interest.  Sir  Auckland  Colvin,  unfortunately,  was 
in  camp,  but  Mr.  Benett,  the  permanent  secretary, 
and  his  sister  very  kindly  took  us  in  charge;  he  was 
most  agreeable  and  interesting  to  talk  to,  and  we 
spent  some  very  pleasant  hours  in  their  company. 

Allahabad  is  situated  on  a  sandy  plain  at  the 
extreme  point  of  the  Doab,*'  which  lies  between 
the  Jumna  and  the  magnificent  Ganges.  This  river, 
the  object  of  the  veneration  and  affection  of  mil- 
lions of  Hindus,  we  were  now  to  see  for  the  first 
time.  We  had  crossed  the  Jumna,  in  the  train,  five 
minutes  before  entering  the  station.  The  Ganges 
lies  about  two  miles  on  the  further  side  of  the  town, 
which  extends  almost  to  the  meeting-place  of  the 
rivers,  about  four  miles  off,  and  ends  on  the  higher 
ground,  where  the  walls  of  the  fort  rise  steeply 
above  the  river  bank. 

The  fort  was  built  by  Akbar,  about  1575,  and  he 
gave  the  town  its  present  name.  The  Mohamme- 
dans had  had  possession  of  it  from  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, when  Shahab-ud-din,  descending  from  the 
north,  seized  the  wholeof  North-West  India.  They 
continued  paramount  until  the  period  of  anarchy  fol- 
lowing the  rise  of  the  Mahrattas.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  English  quelled  the 
Mahrattas,  and  restored  Allahabad  to  the  shadowy 
Mogul  empire.  For  a  short  time  the  phantom  em- 
peror, Alum  Shah,made  it  the  seat  of  imperial  rule, 
but  it,  apparently,  did  not  suit  his  views  to  be  so 
close  to  his  English  friends,  and,  throwing  himself 
into  the  arms  of  the  Mahrattas,  he  withdrew  to 

*  A  generic  term  for  a  tract  of  country  between  two  rivers. 

M 


90  ALLAHABAD 

Delhi,  the  walls  of  which  before  long  encircled  all 
that  remained  of  the  once  splendid  Mogul  Empire. 

When  Alum  Shah  left  Allahabad  the  East  India 
Company  sold  the  district  to  the  Nawab  of  Oude, 
from  whom  it  came  back  into  our  hands  ten  years 
later. 

Centuries  before  Akbar's  day,  however,  a  strong- 
hold, called  Prayag,  or  the  place  of  sacrifice,  existed 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna,  which, 
since  the  earliest  days,  had  been  a  most  popular 
place  of  pilgrimage  with  the  Hindu  race.  The  first 
authentic  historical  information  about  it  is  on  the 
tapering  shaft  of  the  Lath  of  the  Buddhist  king 
Asoka,  in  the  garden  at  the  entrance  of  the  fort ;  it 
dates  from  about  B.C.  258,  and  its  49  feet  of  height 
is  covered  with  inscriptions  ;  it  is,  no  doubt,  very 
curious,  but  is  one  of  the  things  about  which  I  find 
it  difficult  to  screw  up  much  enthusiasm. 

Modern  Allahabad — or  Canning  Town  as  the 
European  quarter  is  called — has  no  streets.  Their 
place  is  taken  by  a  wide  network  of  long,  broad, 
well-watered  avenues,  bordered  with  compounds 
in  which  stand  bungalows,surrounded  by  fine  trees 
with  twisted,  gnarled  boles.  Even  the  shops  and 
post-office  are  in  bungalows,  with  a  drive  up  to  the 
door  and  a  garden  in  front.  Things  looked  greener 
than  in  Bombay,  owing  to  a  recent  thunderstorm, 
and  some  of  the  gardens  were  very  bright,  with 
splendid  roses,  bougainvillea  and  bignonia — the 
two  last  are  seen  in  masses  everywhere — but  there 
is  no  grass,  and  the  dusty  soil  was  too  much  in  evi- 
dence for  English  eyes. 


THE    MAIDAN  91 

This  is  not  entirely  calculated  to  arouse  enthu- 
siam  in  the  mind  of  a  sketcher,  but,  nevertheless, 
there  are  attractions  for  him,  if  he  looks  in  the  right 
direction.  The  Maidan  is  crossed  by  flat  roads, 
leading  away  in  various  directions :  on  them  may 
be  seen  the  usual  picturesque  figures  of  an  Indian 
highway.  Bheesties  with  their  brown,  distended, 
dripping  goatskin  bags,  fruitsellers,  women  bearing 
hods,  little  naked  children,  half-clad  groups  sitting 


AN   AVENUE   IN   ALLAHABAD 


by  the  wayside,  or  the  bullock  cart  drawn  to  one 
side  whilst  the  driver  lies  underneath  in  the  dust, 
taking  the  rest  which  seems  a  sine  qud  non  after 
the  midday  bath  and  food.  Here  and  there,  these 
roads  pass  through  scattered  groups  of  trees,  and 
underoneoftheseclumpsof  trees,  where  the  ground 
was  dotted  over  with  small  dilapidated  shrines  of 
varied  form,  I  found  a  suitable  subject.  It  was 
evening  and  dusk  was  approaching ;  the  air  was  full 
of  the  red  glow  of  the  setting  sun,  which  pene- 
trated the  smoke  rising  from  behind  a  neighbour- 
ing wall  and  the  evening  mist,  with  a  hot  and 


92  ALLAHABAD 

murky  glow.  Past  me  poured  a  constant  stream  of 
rattling,  many-coloured  ekkas,  returning  to  the 
town  with  noisy  devotees  from  the  mela  ;  the  dust 
from  their  wheels  added  mystery  to  the  already 
hazy  atmosphere. 

In  the  native  town,  with  its  low  brown  houses, 
there  were  of  course  picturesque  corners,  but  what 
struck  our  eyes  chiefly — as  we  drove,  through  it,  to 
the  tomb  of  Khusru — was  the  absence  of  colour, 
after  the  vivid  blues  and  reds  and  yellows  of  Bom- 
bay, and  the  number  of  clothes  worn.  In  Bombay 
the  dusky  limbs  of  the  natives  had  often  hardly  a 
stitch  of  clothing  on  them ;  here,  at  this  season, 
quilted  coverings  were  not  unknown,  and  many  of 
the  men  swathed  themselves  in  voluminous  petti- 
coats looped  up  between  their  legs,  or  wore  wrinkled 
tights  covering  their  legs,  to  the  ankles,  with  skimpy 
folds  of  rucked  white  cotton. 

We  drove,  under  a  tall  archway,  overgrown  with 
creepers,  into  the  Khusru  Bagh,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  shady  gardens  in  India,  and  there, 
under  a  fine  spreading  tamarind-tree,  we  saw  the 
last  resting-place  of  Akbar's  ill-fated  grandson. 
Prince  Khusru,  the  rebellious  and  popular  heir  of 
Jehangir.  Akbar  had  a  great  affection  for  Khusru, 
whom  Jehangir  treated  with  a  jealous  animosity 
that  caused  the  Rajput  Princess  Khusru's  mother 
to  commit  suicide.  In  his  brilliant  youth  he  was 
mad  enough  to  seize  Lahore  from  his  father ;  but 
he  was  soon  overpowered,  and  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life  a  prisoner.  Sir  Thomas  Roe, 
James  I.'s  Ambassador,  came  across  him  travel- 


;;^*r;?\ 


THE    FORT  '  93 

ling,  in  custody,  in  the  wake  of  the  army  of  his 
brother  Shah  Jehan,  and  an  interview,  which 
Khusru  accorded  him,  increased  the  already  great 
interest  he  felt  in  his  fate.  As  the  price  of  his  sup- 
port to  Jehangir,  in  a  Deccan  campaign,  Shah 
Jehan  had  obtained  the  custody  of  his  brother,  and 
soon  afterwards,  when  Jehangir  was  ill  and  his 
life  despaired  of,  Khusru  died  so  suddenly  that 
Shah  Jehan  was  strongly  suspected  of  having 
poisoned  him,  in  order  to  secure  the  succession. 
It  is  curious  that  the  tomb  of  this  unlucky 
prince  should  be  almost  the  only  monument  of 
Mogul  days  unmutilated  in  Allahabad.  The  Fort, 
which  passed  to  the  English  in  1801,  must  have 
been  originally  a  splendid  and  intensely  interest- 
ing place,  and  it  still  forms  a  striking  object  rising 
above  the  sandy  spit  at  the  meeting  of  the  rivers. 
But  perhaps  military  exigencies  obliged  us  to 
obliterate  and  destroy  every  vestige  of  originality 
in  it :  it  has  been  ruthlessly  shorn  of  any  trace 
of  architectural  beauty  or  archaeological  interest. 
The  high  towers  are  laid  low,  the  ramparts  topped 
with  turf  and  fronted  with  a  stone  glacis,  and 
modern  stucco  covers  the  ancient  walls.  All  the 
excrescences  have  been  shaved  off,  and  doorways 
and  windows  recklessly  made,  or  filled  up ;  floors 
are  inserted  where  no  floors  should  be,  and  the 
whole  is  thickly  daubed  with  whitewash.  It  was, 
I  suppose,  inevitable.  Here  and  there  scraps 
remain  of  the  original  fortress ;  the  entrance  is 
under  a  domed  and  lofty  gateway  with  a  fine  wide 
vault  beneath,  and  we  also  saw  a  beautiful  deep 


94  ALLAHABAD 

octagonal  well,  flanked  by  two  vaulted  octagonal 
chambers,  probably  intended  as  cool  retreats  from 
the  summer  heat.  And,  if  we  were  disappointed  at 
not  seeing  Akbar's  Audience  Hall — "  supported  by 
eight  rows  of  eight  columns,  and  surrounded  by  a 
deep  verandah  of  double  columns,  with  groups  of 
four  at  the  corners  " — we  remembered  that  the 
Arsenal,  which  it  now  contains,  was  probably  a 
very  essential  part  of  the  Indian  Empire,  and  that 
the  Director-General  of  Ordnance  had,  no  doubt, 
good  reasons  for  disfiguring  the  palace  by  a  modern 
brick  and  mortar  facade. 

The  military  authorities  have  been  more  respect- 
ful to  the  Hindu  remains  and  have  not  interfered 
with  the  well-known  Akshai  Bar,  or  ever-living 
banyan  tree — a  forked  stump,  with  the  bark  on — 
which,  though  the  tree  appears  to  be  replaced  every 
few  months,  yet  stands  in  the  midst  of  what  is, 
probably,  the  identical  Hindu  temple  of  Shiva,  de- 
scribed by  the  Chinese  pilgrims  in  the  seventh 
century.  It  is  now  in  a  pillared  crypt,  reached  by 
an  underground  passage  beneath  the  walls  of 
Akbar's  Fort ;  this  seems  to  show  that  Akbar's 
well-known  religious  liberality  led  him  to  allow 
the  priests  and  pilgrims  free  access  to  the  ancient 
Hindu  shrine,  though  he  was  obliged  to  incorpo- 
rate it  in  his  building. 

In  the  passage  leading  to  the  ancient  temple  are 
some  curious  idols,  and,  in  the  centre,  a  stone 
rudely  tapered  to  a  cone,  which  the  devout  vener- 
ate and  reverence  with  lustrations.  Beyond  is  a 
square   aperture   probably  leading   to   the   river, 


THE    EVER-LIVING   TREE  95 

though  the  Hindus  say  it  leads  straight  to  Benares; 
whilst  the  natural  moisture,  exuding  from  the 
walls,  is  supposed  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  legend 
that  the  sacred  river  Saraswati,  which  disappears 
in  the  Bikaneer  desert,  many  miles  away  north, 
finds  its  way  to  this  holy  spot.  The  tree  was  prob- 
ably worshipped  here  by  the  rude  aboriginal 
tribes  before  the  Aryan  invasion  brought  the 
religion  of  the  Vedas  to  India,  and  Hinduism, 
with  its  ostrich-like  capacity  for  assimilating  alien 
religious  practices,  has  sanctioned  its  continued 
worship.  Hiouen  Thsang  gives  a  description  of 
the  wide-spreading  tree  in  front  of  the  principal 
shrine  of  the  temple,  which  recalls  the  descriptions 
of  the  blood-stained  grove  at  Kumasi.  The  tree 
was  supposed  to  be  the  abode  of  a  man-eating 
demon,  and  was  surrounded  by  the  bones  of  the 
human  sacrifices,  with  which  from  the  "old  unhappy 
far-off  days"  of  earliest  tradition  it  had  been  pro- 
pitiated. 

From  the  ramparts  of  the  Fort,  we  looked  down 
over  the  river,  with  its  many  strange  craft,  and  the 
little  temples  on  the  brink,  and  saw  immediately 
at  our  feet  a  very  interesting  and  characteristic 
scene.  The  great  mela,  or  religious  festival,  to 
which  Allahabad  probably  owes  its  origin,  and 
which  takes  place  every  year  at  this  time,  was  just 
beginning.  The  cold  blue  waters  of  the  Jumna 
wash  the  Fort  walls,  and  after  flowing  for  about  half 
a  mile,  beside  a  sandy  spit  of  land,  fall  into  the 
muddy  Ganges  ;  this  tongue  of  land,  between  the 
two  sacred  rivers,  was  covered  with  grass  and  palm 


96  ALLAHABAD 

huts  and  booths  of  manifold  shape  and  height,  the 
encampment  of  the  pilgrims  who  come  from  the 
ends  of  India — Srinagar  or  Ceylon,  Kabul  or 
Calcutta — for  cleansing  and  purification. 

From  time  immemorial,  many  points  on  the 
ever-swelling  stream  of  the  mighty  Ganges  have 
been  held  sacred;  the  source  Gangotri,  and  the 
issue  into  the  plains  Hardwar,  Deo  Prayag,  Benares, 
and  Sagar,  where  it  enters  the  sea,  have  always  been 
the  scene  of  crowded  religious  festivals,  to  which 
multitudes  throng.  But  the  placeof  pilgrimage,/^;' 
excellence — to  which  literally  hundredsof  thousands 
repair,  to  wash  awaythe  stains  and  defilements  con- 
tracted in  the  turmoil  of  life  and  its  illusions — is 
where  the  waters  of  the  clear  and  rapid  Jumna  meet 
the  slow  and  stately  stream  of  the  beneficent  bene- 
factress. Mother  Ganges,  and,  as  they  believe,  thestill 
more  sacred  waters  of  the  Saraswati.  Not  many  are 
devout  or  adventurous  enough  to  undertake  the  six 
years'  pilgrimage  to  all  the  holy  spots  from  source 
to  sea,  though  the  passion,  which  glows  beneath 
the  calm  impassive  exterior  of  a  Hindu,  moves 
some  intense  and  fervent  souls  to  accomplish  the 
endless  penance  of  measuring  their  length  the 
whole  weary  way.  But  every  year  hundreds  of 
thousands  flock  here  to  bathe  and  pray,  and  there 
are  many  whose  fervour  leads  them  to  devote  a 
full  month  in  all  solemnity  and  earnestness,  to 
fasting  and  religious  exercise.  Then  the  strings  of 
priest-led  pilgrims,  with  banners  floating  from  long 
bamboos,  return  home,  bearing  pots  of  holy  water 
from  the  sacred  stream  with  reverent  care.  Water 


THE    MELA 


97 


from  the  Ganges  is  prescribed  by  the  ritual  for  use 
in  many  domestic  rites. 

Everyone  who  bathes  is  also  shaved,  and  widows 
travel  hundreds  of  miles  to  have  their  hair  cut 
off  here,  as  an  offering  to  the  sacred  stream.  The 
barbers  have  each  to  pay  a  tax  of  four  rupees  for  a 
licence  to  practice  at  the  mela  ;  the  revenue  netted 
at  Allahabad  in  this  way  has  amounted  to  16,000 
rupees  in  the  season — this  gives  one  some  idea  of 
the  size  of  the  gathering  at  its  height. 


AT  THE  MELA 


They  had  not  yet  come  in  very  great  numbers  ; 
nothing  like  the  whole  concourse  of  eager,  patient, 
saffron-robed  pilgrim.s,  seeking  redemption,  had 
yet  arrived,  but,  nevertheless,  there  was  already  a 
regular  city  by  the  river  side,  and  the  swarms  of 
people  were  quite  sufficient  to  give  us  a  very  good 
ideaof  the  scene  later  on,  when  theauthorities  would 
have  someanxious  hours,  supervisingthe  thousands 
who  encamp  on  the  bank  of  the  stream,  to  wash 
away  their  sins  in  the  sacred  waters  of  healing. 
Of  course,  a  religious  festival  involves  a  fair,  and 
to  the  strain  and  stress  of  religious  emotion,  and  all 


98  ALLAHABAD 

the  danger  involved  by  it,  where  so  many  differing 
faiths  are  concerned,  are  added  the  rowdiness  and 
excitement  which  accompany  such  gatherings  all 
the  world  over.  The  Government  has  a  delicate 
task  in  keeping  all  this  seething  cauldron  from  ex- 
ceeding the  bounds  of  decency  and  order.  A 
quainter  contrast  than  that  between  the  primitive 
passions  and  traditions  of  the  unchanging  East 
here  revealed,  and  the  elaborate  painstaking  or- 
ganisation, so  carefully  administered  by  the  con- 
scientious West,  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive. 

We  went  down  and  walked  along  the  lines  of 
booths  and  huts,  all  surmounted  by  long  bamboos 
with  bright  fluttering  flags  at  the  top  ;  the  whole 
scene,  with  the  busy  crowds  of  people,  formed  a 
very  piquant  prospect.  In  one  part  of  the  mela 
were  men,  seated  on  the  ground,  preparing  the 
colours  with  which  they  sign  the  caste-mark  on 
the  foreheads  of  those  who  have  worshipped  and 
bathed ;  further  on'were  groups  selling  the  garlands 
of  white  flowers  which,  strung  flower  by  flower, 
with  threads  of  tinsel,  and  worn  as  necklets  and 
fillets  for  the  head,  recall  the  Greek  custom  of 
coming  to  sacrifice  crowned  with  flowers.  The 
scene,  with  its  millions  of  little  twinkling  lights, 
is  most  striking  at  night,  but  the  early  morning 
is  naturally  the  moment  when  the  throng  is  at  its 
busiest  and  noisiest,  and  then  the  air  is  full  of 
discordant  cries  and  deafening  shouts,  all  the 
yogis,  Brahmans  and  worshippers  clamouring 
loudly  "  Jai  Ram,"  or  "  Jai  Vishnu,"  as  they  per- 
form their  devotions,  their  dark  foreheads  barred 


YOGIS 


99 


with  white,  or  smeared  with  bold  patches  of  ochre, 
in  the  shape  of  Shiva's  eye,  or  Vishnu's  trident. 

The  weird  and  horrible  forms  of  the  fanatical 
yogis  repelled  and  fascinated  our  attention  at  the 
same  time  ;  with  bodies  smeared  with  ashes,  and 
barred  with  paint — yellow,  red, or  white — with  dusty 
matted  hair  :  many  of  them  were  most  loathsome 
objects,  as  they  sat  counting  their  beads  before 


BOOTHS   AT  THE   MELA 


their  huts,  or  the  grass  umbrellas  which  served  the 
same  purpose.  Before  each  ascetic  was  a  cloth, 
spread  on  the  ground,  and  on  this  the  passers-by,  as 
a  tribute  to  his  supposed  sanctity,  threw  offerings, 
— often  simply  cowrie  shells,  which  pass  as  current 
coin,  of  such  infinitesimal  value,  that  sixty-two 
make  only  a  farthing  ;  those,  who  appeared  to  have 
gone  through  a  long  course  of  austerity  and 
penance  had  the  richest  harvest,  as  they  are  pre- 
sumably those  gifted  with  the  highest  occult  power. 
I  called  down  the  wrath  of  a  holy  man  by  putting  my 


loo  ALLAHABAD 

foot  on  the  boards  in  front  of  his  booth,  which  I 
imagined  to  be  a  kind  of  shop  ;  but  when  he  swore 
vehemently  and  horribly,  and  sprinkled  the  place 
with  water,  I  discovered  that  it  was  considered  a 
holy  spot.  I  believe  the  chief  yogis,  or  gurus, 
occupy  a  throne  or  seat,  called  gadi ;  it  is  placed 
under  a  pavilion,  and  sometimes  even  roped  round, 
to  ensure  respect  for  the  sanctity  which  attaches 
to  it  from  its  occupant,  whether  present  or  absent. 
Those,  whose  position  and  power  are  less  univer- 
sally acknowledged,  have  to  content  themselves 
with  an  umbrella  and  small  mat,  tiger-skin,  or  a 
boarded  space,  marked  off  as  a  sacred  precinct. 

Any  pretensions  the  yogis  might  have  to  spiri- 
tuality were,  in  the  greater  number  of  cases,  clearly 
unfounded.  Their  evil  faces  were  boldly  streaked 
with  pigment  under  matted  locks,  coiled  in  ropes 
on  their  heads,  or  crowned  with  fantastic  head- 
dresses ;  and  the  wild  and  swollen,  bloodshot  eyes, 
which  add  to  their  repulsive  aspect,  are  the  result 
of  the  different  preparations  of  opium  or  hemp 
with  which  they  intoxicate  themselves,  hoping  thus 
to  deaden  their  nerves  to  the  self-inflicted  tortures, 
which  they  believe  will  give  them  supernatural 
power  over  gods  and  men. 

There  are  about  five  and  a  half  millions  of  these 
men  in  India,  who  have  given  up  all  earthly 
employment,  and  live  apart  as  ascetics ;  they  spend 
their  time  chiefly  in  roaming  the  countiy  and 
begging.  Some  belong  to  more  or  less  well- 
organised  communities,  called  akharas,  of  which 
at  least  ten  varieties  were  represented  at  the  Alia- 


STRANGE    ASCETICISM  loi 

habad  niela ;  and  some  are  free-lances.  But  all 
yogis,  sadhus,  sunyasis,  or  devotees,  whether 
Sikh-Akhalis,  Mohammedans  or  Hindus,  whether 
they  are  Kaiiphattis  with  great  glass  rings  in 
their  ears,  or  Alakias  with  coils  of  black  rope 
round  their  bodies  and  jingling  bells,  or  wild 
Bairagis  with  long  matted  ropes  of  hair,  crutch 
and  leopard-skin — men  who  are  so  dangerously 
undisciplined  and  immoral  that  they  are  confined 
by  the  officials  in  a  separate  camp — all  have  a 
guru  or  superior,  whose  peculiar  austerity  they 
copy,  and  to  whose  reputation  for  sanctity  and 
power  they  hope  to  succeed.  Some  remain  with 
their  limbs  so  long  in  one  position  that  they  be- 
come atrophied  and  immovable,  or  lie  with  their 
heads  buried  in  the  earth  ;  others  hang  for  hours 
head  downwards  from  their  knees  ;  still  another 
has  a  couch  of  thorns,  and  another  a  bed  of  nails, 
on  which  he  lies,  in  remembrance  of  the  "  arrowy 
bed  "  of  Bhisma,  the  San  Sebastian  of  the  Maha- 
barata.  The  free-lances  are  usually  the  wildest,  and 
their  straining  after  spectacular  effect,  and  the 
theatrical  nature  of  their  degrading  performances, 
are  most  repulsive  ;  with  their  trappings  of  paint, 
beads,  tongs  and  tiger-skins  they  are  not  unlike 
the  medicine  men  of  savage  tribes.  Some,  however, 
of  the  organised  communities,  such  as  the  Nir- 
malas  appear  to  belong  to  bodies  of  learned  gentle- 
men, clothed  and  very  much  in  their  right  minds, 
well  disciplined  and  organised,  and  behaving  in  all 
situations  with  discretion,  true  dignity,  and  real 
religious  earnestness.  But,  of  whatever  standing, 


I02  ALLAHABAD 

all  these  akharas  from  their  numbers,  their  ubi- 
quitous habits  and  the  influence  they  exert  on  the 
people,  cannot  but  be  of  immense  importance  in  all 
religious  and  political  movements. 

The  evening,  after  we  visited  the  niela  we  dined 
with  the  chaplain  of  All  Saints'  Church,  where 
Father  Benson,  of  Cowley,  had  been  holding  a 
Quiet  Day,  and  had  given  some  addresses  which, 
I  was  told,  were  very  interesting.  "  In  India  may 
be  found,  at  the  same  moment,  all  the  various 
stages  of  civilisation  through  which  man  has 
passed  from  prehistoric  ages  until  now." 


CHAPTER  V 

CALCUTTA,  THE  SEAT  OF  EMPIRE 

It  was  6  a.m.,  on  a  chilly  February  morning,  when 
we  arrived  in  Calcutta,  and  I  was  not  at  all  pre- 
pared for  its  appearance;  instead  of  a  city  of  magni- 
ficent palaces  and  wide  avenues,  on  the  banks  of  a 
majestic  river,  and  beneath  a  brilliantly  clear  sky, 
we  found  overselves  in  a  dank,  chilly  mist,  crossing 
a  wide  muddy  stream,  with  its  banks  lined  with 
grey  warehouses  and  tall  chimneys,  that  reminded 
me  strangely  of  Vauxhall  on  a  November  morning. 
Only  the  dark  faces  of  the  white-clad  people  re- 
called an  Oriental  town. 

Professor  Forrest  had  kindly  asked  us  to  stay 
with  him,  and  sent  a  peon  to  meet  us,  and  his 
carriage  to  take  us  to  his  flat,  in  a  large  white- 
washed house  in  Hungerford  Street. 

We  crossed  the  river,  by  a  bridge  of  boats,  and 
drove  through  many  irregular,  but  uninteresting 
and  European-looking  streets,  with  houses,  for  the 
most  part,  of  damp-stained  stucco,  then  over  the 
Maidan,  a  wide,  open,  grass-covered  space  like 
Regent's  Park — dotted  with  trees — with  here  and 
there  an  equestrian  statue  and  through  the  mist 


I04  CALCUTTA 

faint  indications  of  Fort  William  appeared  in  the 
distance. 

The  public  buildings  have  very  little  that  is 
grand  or  characteristic  about  them, and  might  quite 
well  be  in  Liverpool  or  Manchester.  To  the  north 
and  east  of  the  Maidan  is  the  town,  to  the  west  the 
river  and  the  Fort,  to  the  south  and  east  are  streets 
of  villas,  or  stucco  palaces,  surrounded  by  high 
mildewed  walls,  and  scraggy  trees — palms,  teak, 
tamarind,  &c.  &c.,  and  at  the  south-east  corner  of 
the  Maidan  is  the  Cathedral.  Our  host's  house  or 
flat  is  on  the  east  side,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  Maidan,  which,  as  we  crossed  it  together, 
on  foot,  later  in  the  day,  reminded  me  forcibly  in 
places  of  Wimbledon  Common.  It  was  shortly 
after  sunset ;  we  were  enveloped  in  mist  with 
nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  a  November  mist  on 
the  common,  except  that  it  was  hot.  We  were 
walking  over  dry  grass,  towards  a  road,  lit  with  gas 
lamps,  which  might  quite  well  have  been  those 
along  Sir  Henry  Peek's  wall  :  when  we  joined 
it,we  were  amongst  trees  exactly  like  those  opposite 
the  Pound,  and  I  had  an  irresistible  feeling  that  I 
was  only  half  a  mile  from  the  golf  links.  Then  a 
Hindu,  clothed  in  but  one  rag,  brushed  against 
me,  and  the  illusion  was  destroyed. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  there  should  be  so  little 
that  is  Indian  and  Oriental  about  Calcutta,  for  it  is 
apurelyEnglish  creation.  The  East  IndiaCompany 
had  first  a  factory  at  Hooghly,  the  original  Portu- 
gueseport  in  Lower  Bengal, but  in  i686,under  their 
president  Job  Charnock,they  founded  a  settlement, 


EARLY    DAYS 


105 


on  the  old  pilgrim  road  to  Kalighat,  a  shrine 
venerated  from  the  dim  days  of  the  earliest  Hindu 
tradition.  Fifteen  years  later  they  acquired  from 
Aurangzeb's  son  the  freehold  of  two  or  three  miser- 
able river-side  villages — in  an  almost  perfect  level 
of  alluvial  marsh,  a  great  part  of  which  lies  rather 


ST.  PAUL'S   CATHEDRAL 


below  the  river  banks — and  there  built  the  old  Fort 
to  protect  their  possessions.  The  attraction  of  the 
spot  lay  in  the  excellent  anchorage  afforded  to  their 
ships  by  the  Hooghly  and  the  shallow  lagoons  on 
the  edge  of  the  Sunderbans,  and  in  the  protection 
interposed,  by  the  broad  stream,  between  their  go- 
downs  and  the  marauding  Mahrattas,  who  at  times 
harried  the  further  shore. 


io6  CALCUTTA 

The  city  was  originally  almost  Venetian  in  its 
amphibiousness  ;  the  present  Maidan  was  a  lake 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  year ;  the  quarters 
where  the  Europeans  lived  were  so  close  to  the 
paddy,  or  rice  fields,  and  the  marsh,  that  drain- 
age was  a  difficulty,  and  ill-health  a  certainty  to 
the  unfortunate  servants  of  John  Company.  They 
indeed  were  not  able  to  flee  to  the  hills  for  the  hot 
season,  as  the  Government  does  at  present.  The 
mortality  in  the  early  days  amongst  the  exiles  in 
the  swamp  was  appalling,  and  the  enervating 
effect  of  these  surroundings  perhaps,  in  part, 
accounts  for  the  want  of  moral  tone  of  the  Anglo- 
Indian  society  of  that  day ;  the  standard  sank  to 
an  incredibly  low  level.  To  this  combination  of 
unhealthy  influences,  climatic  and  social,  may 
be  traced  the  acute  attacks  of  misery  and  despon- 
dency which  assailed  such  men  as  the  Lawrences, 
and  Metcalfe,  and  no  doubt  many  other  unknown 
young  officials  during  the  early  days  of  their 
Indian  career. 

For  a  short  time  after  the  incident  connected 
with  the  "  Black  Hole,"  the  Mohammedans  had 
possession  of  the  place  again,  but  Clive  at  Plassy 
(1757)  restored  the  authority  of  the  Company;  a 
new  and  a  more  prosperous  Calcutta  sprang  up 
from  the  ashes  of  the  original  settlement,  and 
soon  the  whole  of  Bengal,  which  in  ma-nufacture 
and  agriculture  was  the  richest  part  of  India,  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  English.  The  native  town  was 
a  collection  of  squatter's  settlements  of  mud  huts, 
roofed  with  bamboo — each  with  the  water-hole, 


THE    NATIVE   TOWN 


107 


whence  it  was  dug,  beside  it — enclosed  within  reed 
palisades,  and  shaded  with  bamboo,  peepul  or 
palm-trees  ;  they  were  regularly  three  or  four  feet 
under  water  for  some  part  of  the  year.  With  its 
swarming  multitudes  of  dark-limbed  dock  coolies, 
or  mill-hands  from  the  cotton  and  jute  factories, 


A  TRIBUTARY  OF  THE   HOOGHLY 


its  bastis  still  form  an  insanitary  congeries  of 
mud  and  bamboo  shelters,  threaded  by  tortuous 
lanes,  where  a  broken-down  bullock-waggon 
laden  with  jute  will  completely  block  the  narrow 
way  for  half  an  hour,  in  spite  of  vociferated 
cries  of  *'  Jaldi,  jaldi."  Two  great  thoroughfares 
have  been  driven  right  through  the  heart  of  this 
quarter,  and  the  drainage,  water-supply  and  local 
government  generally  are  now  in  the  hands  of  a 
reformed  municipality,  under  whose  auspices  the 


io8  CALCUTTA 

dawn  of  a  better  day  is  looked  for.  There  are 
great  schemes  afoot  now  to  relieve  the  terrible 
overcrowding. 

I  must  confess  I  did  not  like  Calcutta ;  it  is, 
to  my  mind,  a  dull  and  stupid  place,  with  nothing 
beautiful  to  look  upon,  though  my  companion 
maintained  that  it  had  charms  which  revealed 
themselves  on  closer  acquaintance. 

One  undeniable  drawback  to  Calcutta  is  that 
the  Bengali  is,  in  many  of  his  characteristics,  as 
much  a  creation  of  our  own  as  the  town,  and 
there  is  an  utter  absence  of  colour  in  the  crowds. 

Coming  across  from  Bombay  to  Allahabad  we* 
constantly  passed  groups  of  women  in  brilliant 
saris  and  men  draped  in  gorgeous  Cashmere 
shawls  with  variously  coloured  long  tights  and  per- 
haps a  fine  satin  or  brocaded  waistcoat  in  a  con- 
trasting colour.  And  beyond  Jubbalporewe  saw  a 
lot  of  splendid  men,  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  gor- 
geously arrayed,  coming  in  to  pay  their  respects  to 
a  new  Deputy  Commissioner.  All  this  colour  we 
missed  terribly  in  Bengal. 

The  slim  natives  of  Calcutta  are  even  less  pic- 
turesque than  those  in  Allahabad;  the  women  wear 
white  cotton  chuddahs,  and  the  men  have  flapping 
draperies  of  dingy  white  cotton  or  muslin,  looped 
into  loose  drawers,  without  even  a  bright  turban 
to  relieve  the  monotony.  The  long  scarlet  coats 
worn,  above  their  brown  legs,  by  the  chaprassies — 
or  government  messengers,  attached  to  every 
public  ofiice  or  official — and  the  scarlet  and  gold 
uniforms  of  the  Viceroy's  bodyguard,  are  almost 


NEW  AND   OLD  109 

the  only  spots  of  bright  colour  seen  in  the  streets. 
And  the  sleek  and  smooth-faced  young  Calcutta 
baboo  even  wears  a  black  alpaca  coat  and  trousers, 
in  place  of  the  dignified  and  comfortable  clouds  of 
flowing  white  muslin  of  the  older  generation.  The 
Bengali  turban,  too,  of  State  occasions,  is  a  formal 
artificiality,  and,unlikeanyother  with  which  I  have 
made  acquaintance,  it  is  broad  and  flat  like  a  plate, 
with  a  white  crown,  and  the  brim  is  ornamented 
with  stiff  rolls  of  muslin,  arranged  in  an  unnatural 
and  elaborate  criss-cross  pattern. 

We  went  to  the  India  Museum  looking  for 
Ancient  India,  untouched  by  the  West,  and  were 
not  prepared  to  find  that  the  most  interesting 
things — early  Buddhist  sculptures,  B.C.  250 — were 
quite  Greek  in  grace  and  feeling.  They  have  a 
much  greater  degree  of  refinement,  action,  power 
of  telling  a  story,  vigour  and  humour,  than  are 
usually  characteristic  of  Eastern  work.  These, 
the  earliest  examples  we  have  of  Hindu  sculp- 
tures, are  the  best  that  are  known  ;  the  carved 
rails  from  Buddh  Gaya,  of  the  date  of  Asoka,  only 
a  century  after  Alexander's  day,  are  among  the 
most  interesting  sculptures  in  India.  They  have 
excellent  representations  of  animals  and  trees,  and 
express  the  idea  they  embody  with  a  distinction, 
purpose  and  grace  which  is  admirable.  By  the  first 
century  a.d.  decadence  had  set  in,  and  the  early 
precision  of  touch  was  lost. 

The  stone  rail  was  the  feature  on  which  the  early 
Buddhist  craftsman  lavished  all  his  art.  These  rails 
usually  surrounded  the  Stupas,  the  many-storeyed 


no  CALCUTTA 

towers  that  mark  some  sacred  spot,  or  the  Dagobas, 
buildings  containing  relics  of  Buddha,  but  they 
sometimes  enclose  sacred  trees,  and  those  from 
Buddha  Gaya  encircled  the  sacred  Bo-tree  {Ficus 
religiosa)  where  Sakya  Muni  sat  for  five  years  in 
meditation,  and  received  enlightenment  on  the 
problems  that  perplexed  him.  Legend,  history 
and  art  combine  to  set  before  us  his  benign  and 
beautiful  figure,  first  in  the  luxurious  court  of  his 
father,  on  the  borders  of  Oude,  where,  in  the  days 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  burden  of  the  mystery  of 
all  this  unintelligible  world  of  pain  and  sorrow  laid 
such  hold  on  his  pitiful  and  gentle  nature,  that  he 
fled  from  his  wife  and  child  and  all  human  inter- 
course, into  the  calm  of  the  ascetic's  silent  life.  For 
six  years  he  dwelt  in  the  desert,  hoping,  by  medi- 
tation and  the  endurance  of  bodily  privation,  to 
attain  a  mental  conquest,  and,  by  this  great 
renunciation,  to  penetrate  the  obscurity  which 
envelops  the  riddle  of  life,  and  force  it  to  yield 
up  its  secrets.  The  Asiatic  believes  that  by 
attenuating  the  bond  between  soul  and  body,  the 
soul  can  liberate  itself  and  attain  to  knowledge 
which  will  prove  a  pass-key  to  unlock  all  secrets. 
After  the  supreme  moment,  under  the  Bo-tree, 
Sakya  Muni  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  forty 
years  of  wandering  in  the  lands  watered  by  the 
Ganges,  to  publishing  to  his  fellows  the  knowledge 
— which  he  believed  he  had  wrung  from  heaven — 
of  the  eight-fold  path  that  leads  by  purity,  pity,  truth 
and  gentleness  to  perfect  peace,  and  emancipation 
from  that  craving  for  individual  existence  which 


SAKYA    MUNI  iii 

he  believed  to  be  the  root  of  all  evil.  Sakya  Muni 
possessed  the  passionate  devotion  of  a  martyr,  and 
the  supreme  intellect  of  a  sage,  but  he  was  a  pure 
agnostic.  He  can  tell  us  no  more  of  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  life  than  **  I  came  like  Water  and  like 
Wind  I  go."  His  personality  is  one  of  the  most 
flawless  in  purity  and  tenderness  that  ever  abode 
in  the  ''battered  caravanserai"  of  life,  or  struggled 
for  deliverance  from  the  prison  of  the  senses.  His 
spiritual  influence  is  that  which  most  nearly 
approaches  Christ's ;  but  the  philosophy  and  the 
dogmatic  teaching  of  Buddha  are  sundered  as 
the  poles  from  that  of  Christ ;  thought  was  ever 
to  him  more  than  action,  knowledge  than  love,  and 
his  highest  aspiration  never  went  beyond  the  hope 
of  ceasing  to  suffer,  nor  attained  to  the  conception 
of  an  active  joy  in  ''  the  glory  of  going  on  and 
still  to  be." 

The  rails  we  saw  were  those  Asoka  placed  around 
Sakya  Muni's  tree,  which  he  reverenced  so  much 
that  when  he  sent  his  daughter  to  convert  Ceylon, 
he  sent  with  her  an  offshoot  of  the  sacred  tree, 
planted  in  a  golden  vase.  Other  rails  we  saw,  from 
Bharhut,  with  beautiful  flowing  scrolls  and  clean- 
cut  medallions,illustrating  legends  from  a  worship 
earlier  than  Buddhism  as  we  know  it ;  they  are 
of  a  period  probably  but  little  later  than  Asoka. 
But  the  great  figure  of  Buddha  from  Muttra,  six 
feet  high,  with  a  floral  halo  round  his  head,  is  of  a 
time  nearer  the  Christian  era,  for  in  the  early  days 
Buddha's  life  was  an  inspiration,  but  he  himself 
was  not  presented  as  an  object  of  worship,  and 


112  CALCUTTA 

groups  of  dancing  boys,  or  scenes  representing  in- 
cidents of  love  or  war,  are  those  that,  with  honey- 
suckle and  lotus  ornament,  predominate  in  the 
finest  early  carvings. 

In  its  social  aspect,  Calcutta,  at  the  moment  of 
our  visit,was  very  gay,  and  our  kind  host  and  other 
friends  took  care  that  we  should  have  every  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  this  side  of  Anglo-Indian  life.  We 
had  a  very  pleasant  dinner  at  the  Viceroy's  at 
Government  House,  which  was  built  by  Lord  Wel- 
lesley  in  1800,  and  stands  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
business  part  of  the  city.  It  is  an  important  look- 
ing house  of  yellow  painted  stucco  with  deep 
verandahs  and  colonnades,  like  a  house  in  Regent's 
Park,  but  for  the  screaming  green  parrots  and 
feathery  palms  surrounding  it.  I  believe  it  is  as 
inconveniently  planned  as  it  well  could  be — but 
the  six  acres  of  green  garden,  with  lovely  roses, 
great  bushes  of  Cape  jasmine,  oleanders  and  scarlet 
hibiscus,  and  real  grass  lawns  must  be  some  com- 
pensation for  the  drawbacks  indoors. 

The  dinner,  as  was  quite  fitting,  was  better  done 
than  anything  we  had  come  across  in  any  other 
Indian  or  Colonial  Government  House.  Just  at  the 
right  distance  a  band  played,  whilst  fifteen  magni- 
ficent khidmatgars,  in  long  red  cloth  tunics,  white 
trousers  and  bare  feet,  with  scarlet  cummerbunds 
round  their  waists,  gold  embroidered  breast- 
plates and  white  turbans,  handed  silver  plates  and 
champagne  to  twenty-four  persons.  The  Vice- 
roy's splendid  blue  and  gold  turbaned  Rohilla 
bodyguard,    with    their    scarlet    kurta,   or    long 


SYSTEM    OF    GOVERNMENT         113 

coat,  with  blue  and  gold  points,  blue  breeches  and 
Napoleonic  boots  and  gauntlets,  formed  a  fine 
background  to  the  scene.  I  found  a  brother  amateur 
•in  water-colour  in  Colonel  Ardagh,  and  two  old 
Eton  acquaintances  in  other  members  of  the  staff. 
Among  the  other  guests  were  the  then  Comman- 
der-in-Chief,  Lord  Roberts  and  his  A.D.C., Captain 
Furse,  the  son  of  our  old  friend  the  Archdeacon  of 
Westminster,  who  was  one  of  the  last  people  we 
had  seen  before  leaving  home.  We  met  also 
General  Gordon,  Military  Secretary  to  the  Em- 
bassy at  Teheran  ;  Lord  William  Beresford,  Sir 
Andrew  Scobell,  legal  Member  of  Council.  The 
Viceroy  and  Sir  Andrewrecommended  me  strongly 
to  make  a  push  for  Peshawar  and  the  Khyber 
Pass,  which,  however,  I  unfortunately  never  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching. 

The  government  of  India  is  probably  one  of  the 
most  stupendous  tasks  ever  undertaken  by  a  civi- 
lised State  ;  and  it  is  certainly  incomparably  the 
greatest  burden — in  the  moral  sense — which  Great 
Britain  has  taken  on  her  shoulders.  In  so  far  as 
human  welfare  depends  upon  the  efficiency  and  the 
justice  of  government,GreatBritain  has  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  welfare  of  a  larger  portion  of  the 
human  race  than  any  other  nation.  Very  few  of  us 
have  a  clear  idea  of  the  size  of  India.  The  area  and 
the  population  is  equal  to  the  combined  population 
and  area  of  the  whole  of  Europe  with  the  exception 
of  Russia.  Less  than  1000  Englishmen  are  em- 
ployed in  the  superior  civil  government  of  this 
enormous  continent,  and  a  single  Englishman  is 

p 


114  CALCUTTA 

usually  responsible  for  the  life  and  property  of 
about  300,000  human  beings,  and  entrusted  with 
jurisdiction  over  about  1200  square  miles. 

Our  host.  Professor  Forrest,  is  a  living  encyclo- 
paedia of  things  Indian,  and  no  one  is  so  capable  of 
enlightening  the  appalling  ignorance  of  the  British 
mind  on  the  mysteries  of  the  growth  of  the  present 
system  of  Indian  government,  out  of  that  of  the 
Company's  board  of  directors  in  the  day  of  Clive 
and  Hastings. 

It  is  a  common  error  to  suppose  that  the  East 
India  Company  were  a  trading  company  exercising 
sovereign  rights  over  vast  provinces  in  India,  until 
in  1 858  an  Act  of  Parliament  transferred  these  lands 
and  their  government  to  the  Crown.  The  claim  of 
the  Crown  to  the  Indian  territories  was  asserted 
as  soon  as  Clive,  in  1765,  laid  the  foundation  of 
sovereignty,  by  acquiring  the  right  to  receive  the 
revenues  of  Bengal,  Behar  and  Orissa. 

It  was  by  the  regulating  Act  of  1773  that  the 
British  nation  first  assumed  actual  responsibility 
for  the  government  of  the  East  India  Company's 
possessions,  on  the  principle  that  no  subjects  could 
acquire  the  sovereignty  of  any  territory  for  them- 
selves, but  only  for  the  nation  to  which  they  be- 
longed. 

Soon  after,  Burke  laid  down,  as  the  sound  prin- 
ciple on  which  the  good  government  of  India  must 
always  depend,  that  the  governing  body  was 
accountable  "  to  Parliament,  from  whom  the  trust 
was  derived."  In  1784  Pitt  brought  in  a  "  Bill  for 
the  better  regulation  of  our  Indian  concerns,"  the 


DEVELOPMENT  115 

object  of  which  was  in  reality  to  place  the  whole 
government  of  India  under  the  control  of  the 
Crown  ;  but  the  powers  of  the  Court  of  Directors 
were  continued,  subject  to  the  revision  of  a  Board 
for  Indian  Affairs  appointed  by  the  Crown.  By 
1 793  this  Board  had  become  an  India  Office,  and  its 
president  was  always  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  and 
practically  Ministerfor  India.  But,  by  this  time,  the 
importance  of  the  Governor-General  in  Council 
had  been  much  increased  by  a  great  constitutional 
privilege,  which  conferred  the  power  of  legislation 
over  the  whole  Indian  Empire,  with  due  regard 
to  the  royal  prerogative,  and  the  privilege  of 
Parliament. 

In  1855  Lord  Dalhousie,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  sagacious  and  far-seeing  of  Indian  statesmen, 
opened  the  doors  of  Council  to  the  public  and 
allowed  the  debates  to  be  published.  Professor 
Forrest  believes  *  that  Lord  Dalhousie  perceived 
that  the  Government  of  India  would  some  day  be 
directly  vested  in  a  Secretary  of  State,  only  answer- 
able to  Parliament.  In  order,  therefore,  to  provide 
adequate  protection  for  the  people  of  India  against 
the  ignorance  of  Parliament  he  desired  to  create 
an  independent  legislative  body.  Strong  as  he  was, 
he  may  have  felt  that  no  Governor-General  could 
withstand  the  undue  interference  of  the  Minister 
for  India,  and  of  Parliament,  unless  freedom  and 
publicity  were  granted  to  the  Indian  legislation. 

When  the  news  of  the  Mutiny  became  known  in 
England,  the  responsibility  for  the  wild  fanatical 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  August  1905. 


ii6  CALCUTTA 

outbreak  was  laid  at  the  door  of  the  East  India 
Company,  which  was  universally  condemned.  A 
Bill  for  the  better  Government  of  India  was 
introduced  by  Lord  Palmerston  ;  and  a  Council 
was  established,  styled  "  The  President  and 
Council  for  the  Affairs  of  India,"  with  the  im- 
petuous and  imperious  Lord  Ellenborough  as 
president.  He  excited  general  indignation  by  the 
publication  of  a  secret  despatch  censuring  Lord 
Canning  for  his  action  in  regard  to  the  punish- 
ment of  the  authors  of  the  outbreak.  He  resigned, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Stanley,  who  intro- 
duced another  East  India  Bill. 

On  November  i,  1858,  a  royal  proclamation, 
issued  throughout  all  India,  declared  the  direct 
sovereignty  of  Queen  Victoria  over  all  territories, 
whether  administered  directly,  or  through  native 
princes. 

So  ended  the  rule  of  the  "  Company  of  Merchant 
Adventurers  trading  to  the  East  Indies" — "mer- 
chants with  the  sentiments  and  abilities  of  great 
statesmen,  whose  servants  founded  an  Empire 
which  they  governed  with  firmness  and  equity." 

By  this  Act  one  of  her  Majesty's  Principal 
Secretaries  of  State  exercises  all  powers  and 
duties  which  were  exercised  by  the  Company  or 
the  Board  of  Control.  A  Council  was  established, 
called  the  Council  of  India,  but  all  the  decisive 
power  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  member  of  the 
British  Cabinet  who  is  Secretary  of  State  for 
India,  the  Council  in  practice  being  consultative 
only.     In  India  the  superintendence,  direction  and 


AN    OVERWHELMING   TASK         117 

control  of  the  civil  government  has  always  been 
vested  not  in  the  Governor-General,  but  in  the 
Governor-General  in  Council  ;  and  that  of  the 
military  government  not  in  the  Governor-General, 
nor  in  the  Commander-in-Chief,  but  in  the 
Governor-General  in  Council. 

Fifty  years  ago  Bengal  was  transferred  from 
the  personal  charge  of  the  Governor-General  into 
the  hands  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  who  has, 
till  lately,  grappled  with  the  overwhelming  task 
of  ruling  the  foremost  province  of  India,  rich  in 
coalfields,  and  sugar,  tea  and  jute,  with  a  popula- 
tion twice  as  great  as  that  of  France ;  a  task  which 
in  time  of  famine  proved  well-nigh  impossible,  and 
from  part  of  which  he  has  now  been  relieved. 

Whilst  we  were  in  Calcutta  our  friend,  Chief 
Justice  Way,*  appeared  one  Sunday  morning.  It 
was  most  refreshing  to  see  him,  full  of  spirits  and 
animation,  and  delighted  with  all  his  experiences. 
With  him  was  Dr.  Pennefather,  whose  knowledge 
of  NewZealand  ways  and  people  had  been  so  kindly 
placed  at  our  disposal  the  previous  year.  I  drove 
with  him  to  call  on  the  wife  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Bengal  at  Belvedere,  a  fine  house 
outside  Calcutta,  in  a  beautiful  English-looking 
garden  with  huge  beds  of  enormous  roses,  an 
artificial  river,  and  some  of  the  largest  lawns  in 
India.  Having  tea  there  one  day  later,  and  stroll- 
ing round  the  garden,  I  was  rather  startled  to  come 
across  a  cheeky  jackal  prowling  about.  The  Zoo- 
logical Gardens  are  close  to  Belvedere,  but  I  think 

*  Now  Sir  Samuel  Way,  Bart. 


ii8  CALCUTTA 

the  jackal  was  a  gentleman  at  large.  I  had  walked 
to  the  Zoological  Gardens  in  the  afternoon  ;  they 
are  nicely  laid  out,  and  there  are  some  fine  tigers 
— the  successors  of  those  that  starved  themselves 
to  death  from  homesickness — also  a  lion,  which 
was  born  in  the  London  Zoo.  The  Australian 
birds  and  beasts  are  well  represented,  and  I  made 
great  friends  with  a  white  cockatoo,  who  confid- 
ingly turned  all  parts  of  his  body  towards  me  to 
be  scratched.  The  parrots'  cages,  lined  with  hay, 
looked  very  comfortable  and  much  better  for  the 
birds,  I  should  imagine,  than  the  usual  wire  net- 
work over  dirty  sand. 

We  were  taken  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor  in  a 
steam-launch  to  Garden  Reach,  with  its  rather 
cockneyfied  villas,  and  then  to  tea  in  the  celebrated 
Botanical  Gardens  opposite  ;  they  are  well  worth 
seeing,  and  we  walked  about  the  gardens  after 
tea,  and  met  the  Commander-in-Chief  here  again. 
The  gigantic  banyan  [Fiats  bengalensis)  here  rivals 
the  high  over-arched  and  pillared  shade  of  the 
one  the  Viceroy  uses  as  a  dining-room  at  Barrack- 
pur.  It  was  Dr.  Wallich,  a  Dane  in  the  Govern- 
ment service,  who  made  this  one  of  the  most  useful 
and  beautiful  tropical  gardens  in  the  world.  His 
experiments  here  laid  the  foundation  of  tea  culti- 
vation at  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas  and  in  Assam  ; 
he  collected  specimens  of  all  the  finest  trees  and 
plants  in  India, as  well  as  exotics  fromPenang,  Ne- 
paul,  Java,  and  Sumatra,  and  palms  and  creepers 
from  South  America  and  the  South  Seas.  There 
is  a  tree  with  scarlet  flowers  flaming  like  a  fresco 


CALCUTTA   GARDENS  119 

of  souls  in  Purgatory  ;  another,  a  creeper,  covered 
the  bamboo  hedges  with  great  clusters  of  enormous 
white  bells ;  the  Ainherstia  nobilis  was  in  great 
beauty,  coming  into  flower.  I  thought,  however,  that 
the  ordinary  gardens  of  Calcutta  were  all  the  un- 
learned needs  for  pleasure  and  content.  We  were 
never  tired  of  admiring  the  avenues  of  bamboos, 
the  masses  of  blue  convolvulus  covering  low  walls ; 
the  ubiquitous  orange  and  wine-coloured  creepers, 
the  great  beds  of  roses  and  heliotrope,  the  bushes 
of  Cape  jasmine  and  double  scarlet  hibiscus  ;  or  the 
jungly  dark-red  lanes,  full  of  ferns  and  lovely  trees, 
with  their  stems  a  tangle  of  vivid  green  creepers, 
or  cotton-trees  with  red  magnolia-like  flowers  ; 
the  ditches  a  mass  of  beautiful  caladium  leaves, 
blotched  and  streaked  crimson,  purple,  brown  and 
white,  and  the  tanks  filled  with  pink  water-lilies 
as  big  as  peonies. 

On  the  Maidan  people  play  golf,  and  drive  in 
the  afternoon,  and  the  Viceregal  turn-out  may  be 
seen  in  great  state,  with  four  horses  and  postil- 
lions, footmen,  outriders  and  escort,  all  in  scarlet 
and  gold,  driving  under  the  shadowy  forms  of 
preceding  Viceroys'  statues.  One  of  the  plea- 
santest  legacies  left  by  any  departed  Viceroy  is 
the  Eden  Garden,  planned  by  Lord  Auckland's 
sisters  by  the  river  side  ;  it  is  prettily  laid  out  with 
trees,  winding  paths  and  ponds  of  water ;  beside 
one  of  these  is  a  picturesque  pagoda  temple  brought 
from  Burmah.  One  of  the  most  attractive  aspects 
of  Calcutta  is  revealed  by  an  evening  stroll  there, 
beyond  the  fort,  along  the  river  and  past  the  forests 


I20  CALCUTTA 

of  shipping  ;  great  four-masted  schooners  lie  close 
to  the  quay,  amongst  the  native  craft,  some  with 
high  poops,  great  rudders  and  low  projecting  bows. 

The  English  were  not,  by  any  means,  the  only, 
or  indeed  the  first,  adventurous  spirits  to  establish 
trading  settlements  on  the  Hooghly  in  the  seven- 
teenth century.  The  Portuguese,  French,  Dutch 
and  Danes  all  founded  "factories"  or  depots  for 
their  merchandise  on  the  river.  The  Portuguese, 
before  Shah  Jehan's  time,  built  a  fort  at  Hooghly  ; 
the  French  settled  at  Chandernagore  in  1673,  and 
still  have  a  colony  there  under  an  Administrator 
subordinate  to  the  Governor-General  at  Pondi- 
cherry  ;  the  Dutch  held  Chinsurah  from  about 
1640  to  1828,  when  they  ceded  it  to  the  British  in 
exchange  for  the  Island  of  Sumatra  ;  and  the 
Danes  sold  Serampore  to  the  East  India  Company 
in  1845. 

We  were  very  glad  that  a  picnic,  to  which  our 
host  took  us,  gave  us  the  opportunity  of  seeing  all 
four  of  these  early  settlements.  Two  launches 
awaited  our  party  on  the  river,  and  it  was  arranged 
to  steam  up  to  the  Dutch  settlement,  Chinsurah, 
there  to  lunch  in  the  old  Dutch  GovernmentHouse, 
which  is  now  the  property  of  the  Maharajah  of 
Burdwan.  The  wind  was  very  chilly  going  up 
stream,  and  we  were  quite  glad  of  thick  coats  and 
rugs.  Unfortunately,  owing  to  the  tide  and  wind 
being  against  us,  it  took  us  five  hours  to  reach 
Chinsurah.  We  managed  better  on  our  return,  and 
did  the  distance  in  three  hours,  but  our  stay  at 
Chinsurah  was  cut  very  short,  and  we  had  no  time 


'i  m-  i 


122  CALCUTTA 

to  do  proper  justice  to  the  elaborate  lunch  provided 
by  the  Rajah,  whose  father  was  on  board  our 
launch  and  entertained  us  sumptuously  in  his  son's 
house  ;  we  had  to  leave  before  the  poor  man's 
sweets  and  ices  made  their  appearance. 

On  our  way  up  stream  we  passed  many  jute, 
cotton  and  paper  mills,  alternating  on  the  flat 
banks  with  groves  of  cocoa-nuts  and  mangoes,  and 
small  whitewashed  modern  temples ;  some  of  these 
last  were  in  a  marvellous  semi-classic  or  pseudo- 
gothic  style.  They  stand  usually  in  green  com- 
pounds, enclosed  within  high  walls,  and  with  broad 
terraces  of  steps,  on  the  river  side,  leading  down 
to  the  water's  edge.  But  the  river  struck  us  as 
being,  like  Sydney  Harbour,  too  broad  in  propor- 
tion for  theflat  shores,  and  the  buildingsandgroves, 
which  might  have  been  picturesque,  were  dwarfed 
by  the  vast  expanse  of  the  stream. 

On  our  right  we  skirted  the  English-looking 
Park  of  Barrackpur,  with  the  Government  bunga- 
low, its  long  facade,  like  a  villa  at  Twickenham, 
discernible  amongst  the  trees.  In  old  days,  before 
Simla  was  the  headquarters  of  government,  from 
March  to  December,  the  Viceregal  party  spent  the 
hot  weather  here.  Nowit  is  only  used  for  short  week- 
end visits.  Lady  Canning  had  a  great  affection  for 
the  garden,  and  delighted  to  be  here,  where  she  had 
not  "a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  walk  and  three  sentries 
to  pass,"  to  get  from  her  own  room  to  the  drawing- 
room. 

Here  in  the  garden  she  had  made  so  beautiful 
Lord  Canning  buried  her  at  sunrise  one  morning 


LADY   CANNING  123 

in  1 86 1.  Lady  Canning  went  through  all  the 
horrors  of  the  Mutiny  time,  and  felt  acutely  all 
the  anxieties  of  the  position  of  the  Viceroy,  on 
whom  lay  the  responsibility  of  steering  India 
through  the  crisis,  and  then,  in  the  face  of  severe 
criticism,  meting  out  adequate  penalties  to  the 
misdoers,  without  overstepping  the  line  where  just 
punishment  becomes  unchristian  retribution.  The 
strain  proved  too  much  for  her,  and  she  succumbed 


BARRACKPUR 


at  once  to  an  attack  of  fever  caught  in  the  terai. 
On  the  way  from  Darjeeling  she  had  halted  at  the 
foot  of  the  Himalayas  to  make  a  sketch  of  the 
beautiful  jungle  scenery,  and  arriving  in  Calcutta 
unwell  and  overtired,  she  died  in  a  few  days.  Her 
grave  is  in  a  little  glade  of  green  turf,  shaded  by 
trees,  and  opening  on  a  beautiful  reach  of  the  river 
(which  here  is  twice  the  width  of  the  Thames  at 
London  Bridge),  which  she  so  much  admired.  For 
a  long  while  a  light  was  kept  always  burning  on 
her  grave  at  night. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  river  we  passed  the 
French  settlement  of  Chandernagore,  where, 
though  the  whole  place  is  only  3  miles  round,  the 
French  Administrator  has  under  him  a  perfect  re- 
production in  miniature  of  his  home  government. 


124  CALCUTTA 

Then  came  the  Danish  settlement  of  Serampore, 
where  Dr.  George  Smith  used  to  live ;  the  scene  of 
the  labours  of  the  Baptist  missionaries,  Marshman 
and  James  Carey.  Carey  was  a  great  botanist  and 
planted  profusely ;  his  magnificent  park  with  fine 
teak,  mahogany  and  tamarind  trees  has  been  de- 
vastated by  the  cyclones  to  which  Calcutta  is  always 
liable  late  in  the  hot  weather  and  after  the  rains. 
He  showed  a  very  human  side  of  his  character  as 
he  lay  dying.  "Dear  brother  Marshman,"  he  said 
rather  pathetically,  '*  I  am  afraid,  when  I  am  dead 
and  gone  that  you  will  let  the  cows  get  into  my 
garden."  The  whole  site  seems  now  to  have  been 
swallowed  up  in  a  jute  factory. 

The  craft  on  the  river  is  very  picturesque,  and  in 
the  sunset  coming  back,  the  temples  on  the  bank 
and  strangely  shaped  boats,  looked  much  more 
effective  between  the  brilliant  sunset  sky  and  its 
reflection  in  the  river. 

Some  of  the  boats  were  covered  with  reed  thatch, 
others  had  great  square,  much-tattered  sails,  and 
with  the  wind  dead  aft,  were  making  good  way 
down  the  centre  of  the  stream  ;  most  of  them  had 
great  rudders  with  high  sterns  and  platforms  raised 
above  them  from  which  the  tiller  was  worked.  Here 
and  there  a  wreath  of  smoke  from  a  small  steamer 
added  interest  to  the  scene. 

When  the  moment  came  to  leave  Calcutta  we 
were  quite  refreshed  at  the  prospect  before  us  of 
"  dirty  "  Benares,  but  we  were  glad  to  have  been  in 
Bengal,  if  only  because  we  saw  quite  a  different 
sort  of  country.  It  is  a  great  deal  flatter  than  the 


CROPS  125 

palm  of  one's  hand,  and  very  fertile,  with  a  beauti- 
ful richness  of  vegetation  and  variety  in  the  foliage 
of  the  groups  of  trees.  The  brown  huts  are 
huddled  together  on  a  little  mound  round  or  near 
a  tank  of  dirty  water,  under  the  familiar  cocoa-nut 
palm,  for  which  we  had  quite  an  affection,  and  which 
we  had  hardly  seen  since  we  were  in  Ceylon.  They 
exist  in  Bombay — where  they  are  all  government 
property,  and  each  with  its  number  attached — but 


THE  HOOGHLY  ABOVE  CALCUTTA 


not  to  anything  like  the  same  extent  as  in  lower 
Bengal.  It  struck  us  as  curious  that  in  the  country 
northoftheHooghly,  which  wecrossedaboveBanke- 
pore,  there  should  be  not  one,  although  they  come 
almost  to  the  water's  edge  on  the  south  side !  The 
country  is  very  highly  cultivated  in  small  patches 
of  different  crops,  separated  only  by  a  very  narrow 
raised  footpath  and  perhaps  a  row  of  palms.  We 
heard  the  names  of  many  crops,  some  of  which  we 
could  not  at  the  time  identify — turmeric,  arhar 
(pulse),  jute,  linseed,  indigo,  joari  (millet),  paddy 
and  rabi,  which  I  found  to  be  the  term  used  for  all 
crops  sown  in  October  or  November.  We  noticed 
chiefly  various  sorts  of  grains,  bright  green  now, 
and  the  tall  castor-oil  plant,  a  shrub  like  a  kind  of 
broom,  and  very  effective  masses  of  white-flowered 
opium  poppy. 


126  CALCUTTA 

Fences  or  walls  seemed  unknown,  except  in  the 
case  of  an  occasional  "walled  garden."  The  mat- 
huts  are  often  covered  with  creepers  and  thatched, 
and  overshadowed  by  plantains  with  pale  sea- 
green  foliage  or  feathery  bamboos  and  dark  man- 
goes. They  consist  of  a  front  room  with  a  door, 
and  a  hole  two  feet  square,  as  window,  and  a 
smaller  back  room,  which  gets  its  light  and 
air  only  through  the  first.  Some  of  them  are  tiled 
and  those  of  the  better  class  usually  have  a 
verandah  supported  on  pillars.  A  goat  or  two  is 
tethered  outside,  and  perhaps  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  a  woman  may  be  seen  in  a  white 
chuddah,  with  bracelets  on  her  ankles  and  wrists 
and  hair  drawn  back  tight  into  a  knob.  No  woman, 
however  humble  her  station,  but  would  lose  her 
self-respect  if  she  appeared,  before  her  family, 
without  a  nose  ring  and  bangles.  The  people  all 
congregate  into  the  villages,  and  there  is  no  one 
in  the  fields,  unless  it  be  a  watchman  or  chokeedar, 
crouching  under  his  little  straw  shelter. 

These  self-contained  Indian  village  communities 
have  preserved  their  constitution,  customs  and 
character  unaltered  for  centuries,  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  which  have  befallen  the  land,  under  the 
rule  of  their  native  princes,  and  that  of  their 
Moslem  conquerors,  through  the  cruel  raids  of 
Mahrattas  and  the,  to  them,  incomprehensible 
methods  of  the  British.  For  thirty  or  forty 
centuries  they  have  had  the  same  officials.  The 
Headman  who  presides  at  the  meetings  of  the 
panchayat  or  local  board,  which  assembles  under 


VILLAGE    COMMUNITIES 


127 


a  large  tree  to  discuss  and  settle  affairs  of 
public  interest;  the  village  Notary  or  accountant 
who  keeps  record  of  the  business  and  of  the  land 
assessment,  produce  and  rents  ;  the  Priest  or 
spiritual  head,  a  Brahman,  who  is  almost  wor- 
shipped, and  presents  to  whom  bringdown  almost 
incalculable  benefits.  He  sometimes  combines  with 
his  office  that  of  the  village  Astrologer,  a  most 
important  function,  for  a  native's  life  is  passed  in 


BOATS    ON    THE    HOOGHLY 


constant  dread  of  evil  influences  from  the  stars  or 
from  some  unlucky  omen,  and  the  astrologer  knows 
the  charm  by  which  all  such  malign  influences  may 
be  averted.  The  villageSchoolmaster — whoteaches 
the  children  to  read  from  a  hornbook  of  palm- 
leaves  and  to  write  on  the  sand,  and  who  enforces 
discipline  by  strangely  original  methods — is  some- 
times also  a  priest.  If  so,  he  takes  no  payment  for 
his  instruction,  as  in  India  no  religious  teacher 
ever  teaches  for  money,  though  no  doubt  his 
scholars  bring  him  gifts  of  produce  or  food.  The 
Barber  shaves,  cuts  nails,  cracks  joints,  and  is  an 
expert  at  massage.  There  will  be  also  a  village 
carpenter,  blacksmith,  cowman,  weaver  and  a  shoe- 


128  CALCUTTA 

maker,  dyer,  dhobie,  oilman,  water-carrier,  watch- 
man and  sweeper.  The  hereditary  Potter  must  not 
be  forgotten,  as,  though  a  Hindu  usually  prefers  to 
eat  his  food  off  a  platter  of  leaves,  the  consump- 
tion of  earthenware  is  considerable,  for  no  article 
of  the  sort  should,  strictly,  be  used  a  second  time. 
All  these  hereditary  craftsmen  pursue  their  trades 
as  a  sacred  calling,  and  not  for  money.  The  Hindu 
regards  the  work  to  which  he  is  born  as  a  holy 
duty,  to  execute  which  God  created  him.  And 
whether  he  come  into  the  world  as  a  priest,  a 
sweeper,  or  as  a  member  of  a  criminal  caste  whose 
fixed  business  is  plunder  or  murder,  he  is  bound 
by  all  the  obligations  of  religion  to  continue  in  the 
profession  of  his  father  for  this  life.  The  next  time 
he  appears  in  human  shape  he  will  have  another 
caste,  and  a  different  calling,  until  he  has  run 
through  the  whole  gamut  of  human  existence, 
and  can  cease  to  be.  So  the  **  long-limbed,  whole- 
hearted, and  dull-headed"  villagers  have  always 
believed  from  the  dim  days  long  before  history 
concerned  itself  with  them,  and  so  now  they  con- 
tinue to  go  dutifully  about  their  business,  follow- 
ing the  traditions  of  their  elders,  "  confused  be- 
tween facts  and  fancies,  tied  and  bound  by  the 
allegorical  practices  of  a  faith  the  inner  meaning 
of  which  has  long  been  forgotten."  So  they  are 
content  to  toil  with  an  apparently  indifferent  calm, 
beneath  which  lies  a  great  and  ardent  capacity  for 
passion  ;  and  as  they  live  so  they  die,  as  their 
forefathers  did  before  them,  calmly  smiling. 


CHAPTER  VI 
BENARES:  THE  HEART  OF  HINDUSTAN 

It  was  cold  in  the  train  in  the  early  morning :  we 
had  been  travelling  all  night,  and  had  exchanged 
the  coast-climate  of  Calcutta  for  the  colder  plains. 
We  were  an  hour  late  when  we  reached  Mogul 
Serai  station,  and  had  barely  time  to  catch  the 
Benares  train.  By  2  p.m.  we  were  in  Clark's  Hotel, 
Benares,  a  clean,  comfortable  bungalow  in  the  Can- 
tonment, but  unfortunately  three  miles  from  the  old 
city.  As  soon  aswe  had  time  to  turn  roundwe  made 
ourwaytothecentre  of  the  native  quarters,  and  were 
enchanted  with  the  novelty  and  vivid  interest  of 
the  scene.  There  is  no  doubt  about  it,  Benares  is 
wonderful ;  it  is  marvellously  picturesque,  and  as  for 
sketching,  a  lifetime  would  notexhaust  the  subjects. 
It  is  a  long  narrow  town,  extending  in  a  crescent 
along  the  left  bankof  theGanges  fortwomiles,  over- 
looking, on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  a  flat  and 
monotonous  expanse  of  cultivated  plain  ;  the  bank 
is  steep,  and  about  100  feet  high,  and  is  clothed,  as 
it  were,  with  staircases  coming  down  to  the  water's 
edge  in  wide  irregular  flights,  quite  unconnected 
with  one  another.  Above  these  flights  of  steps,  or 
ghats,  are  huge  houses  and  palaces,  temples  and 


T30  BENARES 

the  great  mosque  of  Aurangzeb,  packed  close,  with 
narrow  alleys  between  them.  All  this,  in  spite  of 
its  attraction,  is  comparatively  modern,  and  except 
a  few  buildings,  there  is  nothing  earlier  than  the 
time  of  Akbar  (sixteenth  century) ;  for  like  many 
Eastern  towns  Benares  has  shifted  its  site  from 
time  to  time,  and  has  left  traces  of  its  "dead  self" 
for  miles  along  the  Ganges. 

Unfortunately,  I  did  not  see  the  remains  of  the 
earliest  city,  Sarnath,  a  marvellous  place,  I  believe, 
with  gigantic  Buddhist  Topes,  and  ruins  of  other 
colossal  buildings,  still  in  situ  close  by. 

No  one  knows  the  story  of  its  beginning,  at  the 
time  of  the  very  earliest  Aryan  settlement  in  India, 
but  Benares  was  the  religious  centre  of  India  as  far 
back  as  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  when  itwas  chosen  by 
Sakya  Muni  as  the  first  place  in  which  to  preach 
his  doctrine  of  Nirvana.  It  then  became  a  strong- 
hold of  Buddhism  for  many  centuries  ;  but  in  the 
fourth  century  a.d.  reverted  to  the  Hindu  faith. 
In  the  twelfth  century  came  the  Mohammedans, 
who  conquered  it,  and  converted  its  temples  into 
mosques,  and  the  story  goes  that  Alu-ud-din 
boasted  of  having,  here  alone,  destroyed  i  ooo  Hindu 
shrines. 

After  600  years  of  Moslem  predominance 
Benares  returned  to  its  old  faith,  and  has  since 
continued  the  sacred  city  par  excellence  of  the 
Hindu. 

In  Calcutta  and  Bombay — though  one  cannot  fail 
to  notice  the  enormous  predominance  of  natives 
over  Europeans — yet,  owing  to  the  modern  aspect 


THE    GOLDEN    TEMPLE  131 

of  the  greater  part  of  these  cities,  with  their  wide 
streets  and  broad  spaces,  and  their  law-abiding  in- 
habitants, the  Indian  population  does  not  impress 
one  by  its  vast  numbers.  To  all  this  the  appearance 
of  crowded  Benares  forms  a  striking  contrast.  Here 
is  the  very  heart  of  India.  Here,  in  this  fountain  of 
Hindu  fanaticism,  beats  the  quick  pulse  of  the 
people.  To  this  sacred  spot,  from  the  utmost 
corners  of  the  land,  stream  in  endless  pilgrimage 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  devout  Hindus,  who, 
through  the  narrow  alleys  and  dark  passages  of 
the  city,  constantly  course  along,  jostling  one 
another  in  a  seething  flow,  towards  the  temples,  or 
the  sacred  river,  to  drink  or  in  bathing  to  wash 
away  their  sins,  or  to  die,  if  need  be,  in  the  arms  of 
old  Ganges,  the  mother  of  life. 

Here  then,  above  all  other  places,  in  this  swarm- 
ing mass  of  humanity,  is  one  forced  to  realise  the 
depth  and  strength  of  the  national  life  of  India. 
This  was  specially  impressed  upon  us  in  the  first 
place  we  visited  ;  the  Golden  Temple  dedicated  to 
Bisheshwar,  or  Shiva,  as  the  Poison  God,  the 
spiritual  ruler  of  Benares.  In  this  form  Shiva 
appears  with  a  blue  throat,  the  result  of  his  having 
magnanimously  swallowed  the  poison  evolved 
in  one  of  the  processes  of  creation.  But  this 
deity  is  worshipped  probably  by  more  than 
half  the  Hindus  as  the  reproductive  power  of 
nature,  in  the  form  of  a  symbol,  the  lingam.  Is 
there,  perhaps,  some  remote  connection  between 
this  cult  and  the  calf  and  pillar  worship  of  the 
Israelites  ?    Shiva's  temple,   this  holiest  of  holy 


132  BENARES 

places  in  the  sacred  city,  is  in  the  heart  of 
the  town,  surrounded  by  a  network  of  narrow 
alleys  thronged  with  people,  and  crowded  between 
other  buildings.  The  roofed  quadrangle  where  it 
stands  is  itself  crowded  with  worshippers,  jostling 
one  another,  sprinkling  holy  water  and  carrying 
votive  offerings  of  flowers  to  hang  upon  the 
upright  black  stone,  tapering  to  a  cone  shape, 
the  symbol  of  Shiva.  Cows  are  admitted  on  equal 
terms,  and  roaming  lazily  along  have  to  be  passed 
and  to  pass  ;  every  now  and  then  a  palanquin  comes 
along  and  one  has  to  flatten  oneself  against  the 
walls  of  the  narrow  passages  to  let  it  go  by. 

Shrines,  figures  of  cows,  shapeless  masses — re- 
presenting Ganesh,  Shiva's  son,  the  god  of  good 
luck,  with  elephant's  trunk  painted  red  (in  one  in- 
stance with  three  hideous  silver  eyes,  and  silver 
hands) — met  our  gaze  on  all  sides,  and  at  every 
turn  in  a  bewildering  confusion. 

One  very  curious  object  of  worship  specially 
caught  my  eye.  It  was  a  silver  disk  with  a  red 
apron  hanging  below  it,  and  represents  the  planet 
Saturn,  an  important  object  in  this  city  of  astro- 
logers. 

The  gates  or  doors  of  the  Golden  Temple  are  of 
beautifully  wrought  brass,  but  it  takes  its  name 
from  the  fact  that  one  of  its  conical  flame-like 
towers,  and  a  dome,  are  covered  with  plates  of 
gilded  copper ;  we  mounted  a  narrow  stair  in  a 
side  building,  in  which  are  kept  the  great  tom- 
toms, and  where  temple  flowers  were  being  sold, 
and  looked  at  these  towers,  and  the  red  conical 


ANNOYING   CROWDS  133 

tower  of  Mahadeo's  temple  from  the  first  floor. 
The  so-called  priest,  with  a  view  to  backsheesh, 
told  me  he  would  pray  the  gods  to  give  me  a  son. 
When  I  told  him  I  had  one  already,  he  kindly 
offered  to  pray  that  I  might  have  five. 

Round  the  court  of  an  adjoining  temple  are  a 
number  of  sacred  cows  in  close  quarters  ;  this  they 
call  the  Cow  Temple,  and  a  little  further  on,  round 
the  corner  of  a  narrow  alley,  is  the  Temple  of 
Annapurna,  goddess  of  daily  bread.  All  along 
these  lanes  are  small  shops  for  the  sale  of 
images  and  rosaries,  and  of  the  celebrated  brass- 
work  of  Benares,  especially  of  "lotas,"  which  are 
as  essential  to  the  existence  of  a  Hindu  as  a  cigar- 
ette is  to  a  Spaniard.  A ' '  lota  "  is  a  spherical  wide- 
mouthed  vessel — of  brass  for  a  Hindu,  of  copper  for 
a  Mohammedan — from  which  the  owner  never 
seems  to  be  separated,  and  to  which  he  clings  with 
tenacity  when  he  has  given  up  all  other  worldly 
possessions.  Out  of  it  he  drinks  ;  with  the  aid  of 
it,  and  a  bit  of  soft  stick,  and  much  ritual  obser- 
vance, he  washes  his  teeth — a  favourite  occupation 
and  pastime,  especially  out  of  the  railway  carriage 
window  when  travelling — and  with  the  help  of  it 
he  cooks. 

The  eager,  excited  crowds,  which  thronged  and 
pressed  us,  were  rather  annoying,  and  as  we  got 
into  the  carriage  we  were  beset  by  dancing  girls. 
The  beggars  are  most  persistent,  and  have  recourse 
to  all  kinds  of  expedients  to  excite  sympathy  and 
extract  backsheesh.  As  we  went  along,  a  woman 
ran  up  to  the  carriage  with  something  wrapped  up 


134  BENARES 

in  her  hands,  and  disclosed  just  enough  to  show 
a  newly  born  infant,  which  could  not  have  been 
more  than  an  hour  or  two  old. 

Before  dusk  we  had  time  to  explore  some  high, 
narrow  streets  in  the  thick  of  the  town  ;  they 
reminded  me  of  Genoa,  but  are  far  more  pic- 
turesque. The  rich  colouring  (chiefly  a  deep  red), 
the  overhanging  storeys,  and  an  occasional  bridge 
thrown  over  from  one  side  of  the  street  to  the 
other,  combine  all  the  elements  which  an  artist 
could  desire.  Every  empty  space  on  the  brightly- 
painted  fa9ades  is  occupied  by  a  fantastic  repre- 
sentation of  Hindu  mythology,  with  all  its 
many-handed,  many-headed,  many-weaponed 
gods  and  goddesses  in  endless  variety ;  and, 
besides  the  regular  temples  and  shrines  with 
which  the  town  bristles,  an  uncouth  image,  or  a 
squarely-hewn  sacred  stone,  is  set  up  at  every 
vacant  corner. 

Whilst  we  were  driving  near  the  cantonment,  we 
encountered,  issuing  from  a  dark  grove  of  trees — 
amongst  which  were  scattered  a  few  shrines  and 
native  dwellings — a  most  picturesque  crowd  sing- 
ing and  playing  music,  and  in  the  centre  a  bamboo 
bier  covered  with  red  cloth  and  tinsel,  and  strewn 
with  yellow  flowers.  It  was  a  funeral  procession, 
and  the  body  was  on  its  way  to  one  of  the  Ghats 
to  be  cremated. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  February  6,  we  started 
to  drive  to  the  Temple  of  Durga,  sometimes  called 
the  "  Monkey  Temple,"  at  the  far  west  extremity  of 
the  town.  Durga,  or  Kali  the  Terrible,  is  one  form 


miimimmi&UmmmM^- 


A  CORNER  SHRINE  IN  A  BENARES 
ALLEY 

' '  The  streets  reminded  me  of  Genoa,  but  are  far  more 
picturesque,  with  their  rich  colouring  (chiefly  a  deep 
red),  overhanging  storeys,  and  an  occasional  bridge 
thrown  over  from  one  side  of  the  street  to  the  other. 
Every  empty  space  is  occupied  by  a  fantastic  repre- 
sentation of  Hindu  mythology,  and,  besides  the  regular 
temples  and  shrines  with  which  the  town  bristles,  an 
uncouth  image,  or  a  squarely-hewn  sacred  stone,  is 
set  up  at  every  vacant  corner." 


IN   THE  OUTSKIRTS   OF  THE  TOWN 


136  BENARES 

of  Shiva's  wife,  and  worshipped  over  the  greater 
part  of  the  peninsula.  The  Thugs  and  Dacoits, 
now  happily  practically  suppressed,  were  devotees 
of  Kali,  in  her  most  horrible  aspect.  They  wor- 
shipped her  under  the  form  of  an  axe  ;  and  the 
Jemadar,  or  leader  of  the  band,  was  usually  con-  • 
sidered  to  be  an  incarnation  of  the  power  and 
an  inspired  instrument  of  Mai  Kali,  when  he 
murdered  the  innocent  victims,  whom  chance,  or 
the  design  of  the  goddess,  as  he  believed,  threw 
across  his  path.  An  unfortunate  traveller,  once 
marked  down  by  them,  would  be  followed — or  ac- 
companied on  his  journey  in  the  most  friendly  man- 
ner— for  days  or  even  weeks,  before  the  fitting  occa- 
sion for  the  climax  offered ;  but  the  Thug  never  lost 
his  quarry,  and  the  fatal  noose  ended  .the  victim's 
life  at  last. 

1 1  is,  perhaps,  not  surprising  that  the  Government 
of  India  still  has  to  publish  a  report  from  the 
Thugee  and  Dacoity  Department,  when  one  con- 
siders that  in  1830  there  were  few  districts  in  India 
without  a  resident  band  of  Thugs,  with  their  dey/s, 
or  chosen  murder  and  burying  grounds,  thickly 
dotted  along  every  high  road  in  India  ;  and  that 
there  were  in  all  10,000  of  these  professors  of  mur- 
der as  a  fine  art,  roaming  unmolested  over  the 
peninsula  and  earning  their  living  at  the  rate  of 
three  murders  a  head  during  the  year.  The  more 
successful  leaders  commanded  well-disciplined  and 
perfectly  organised  gangs  of  over  a  hundred  fol- 
lowers, who  were  all  trained  men,  specialists  in  some 
one  branch  of  their  profession,  conversant  with  a 


THE    THUGS  137 

secret  language  and  an  elaborate  code  of  practical 
and  shrewd  rules,  and  thoroughly  and  genuinely 
impressed  with  the  divine  origin  of  their  hereditary 
cult.  Some  of  them  were  really  good  men,  excel- 
lent fathers  and  husbands,  men  of  position,  mer- 
chants, tax-collectors,  or  officials,  but  the  ancient 
hereditary  faith  exercised  too  strong  a  fascination 
over  them.  "The  Thug  was  simply  a  practical,  de- 
vout man ;  hewould  set  out  on  hisbusinesswith  the 
quiet  earnestness  of  one  merely  doing  his  duty,  and 
bringing  up  his  son  to  a  good  professional  connec- 
tion ;  he  would  brutally  murder  twenty  or  thirty 
victims,  not  only  with  an  easy  conscience,  but  with 
the  calm  self-approval  of  a  successful  practitioner; 
and,  if  he  fell  into  the  meddling  grasp  of  the  law, 
he  would  go  to  his  death  with  the  cheerful  smile  of 
a  religious  man  who  had  lived  well  and  entertained 
no  doubts  of  being  munificently  rewarded  here- 
after. .  .  The  innocent  villagers  submitted  to 
death  by  strangling  at  the  hands  of  the  Thug  then, 
as  they  now  die  of  cholera  or  the  plague,  in  a  silent, 
hopeless  belief  that  it  is  wrong  to  struggle  against 
the  visitation  of  the  gods."  Consequently  the  mur- 
ders were  never  traced;  and  it  required  the  splendid 
self-devotion  of  Sir  William  Sleeman — exposing 
himself  voluntarily  for  many  years  to  the  hatred 
of  thousands  of  secret  murderers — to  crush  this 
ancient  and  powerful  religion  of  crime.  Kali  still 
requires  to  be  propitiated ;  human  sacrifices  are  not 
now  attainable — though  instances  have  been  dis- 
covered as  recently  as  1891  and  1892 — and  usually 
only  goatSjbuffaloes,  and  sheep  are  slain  before  her. 


138  BENARES 

No  religious  festival  is  so  popular  in  Hindu 
homes,  especially  in  Bengal,  as  the  milder  Durga- 
puja  in  October.  A  small  plantain  tree  covered 
with  straw  and  clay  is  painted  with  vermilion, 
draped  in  a  silk  saree  adorned  with  tinsel  orna- 
ments, and,  being  consecrated,  is  believed  to  be 
the  habitation  of  the  goddess.  After  a  solemn  pro- 
cession to  the  river,  it  is  brought  to  the  house  of  the 
devotee  who  had  it  made,  and  is,  for  a  month, 
venerated  and  worshipped,  with  fasts  by  day  and 
feasting  at  night.  Finally,  Mai  Durga  is  said  to  be 
"going  to  the  house  of  her  father-in-law" — like 
Persephone : — the  image  is  again  carried  on  a 
bamboo  stage  to  the  river  side,  and  amidst  shouts 
and  dancing  is  thrown  into  the  stream.  The  cere- 
monies usuallyterminatewith  drunken  bacchanalia 
and  disgraceful  scenes. 

There  is  nothing  particularly  remarkable  about 
this  temple  of  Durga,  though  its  architecture  is 
simple  and  graceful,  and  it  has  some  fairly  elabo- 
rate carving  round  the  inner  colonnade.  It  is 
painted  red  and  stands  beside  a  tank,  overshadowed 
by  some  fine  peepul  trees,  which,  as  usual  in  India, 
are  held  sacred.  There  are  groves  of  trees  in  India 
held  so  sacred  that,  though  timber  and  firewood 
are  in  great  request,  no  stick  is  ever  cut,  nor  is 
even  the  dead  wood  picked  up.  The  sacred  cha- 
racter of  this  site  probably  dates  back  to  a  dim 
period,  when  these  trees,  or  their  predecessors,  were 
venerated,  in  connection  with  the  tree  worship  of 
the  aboriginal  tribes,  as  sheltering  the  spirits  whose 
good  will  had  to  be  secured,  by  sacrifices  and  obla- 


THE    BATHING   GHATS  139 

tions,  to  ensure  a  good  harvest.  In  these  trees  the 
tribe  of  sacred  monkeys  swarms  and  breeds,  and 
chatters  incessantly,  descending  at  intervals  to 
take  their  share  of  the  offering. 

In  the  temple  also  are  numbers  of  monkeys, 
climbing  and  leaping  about  everywhere ;  and  as 
many  beggars  and  other  creatures,  worry  you 
to  look  at  this,  or  that,  or  press  you  to  buy  food 
to  feed  the  monkeys.  Though  the  monkeys  are  no 
respecters  of  persons — the  boldest  of  them  actually 
jumped  upon  us — yet  I  greatly  preferred  the  mon- 
keys to  their  masters. 

After  a  sketch  at  the  Golden  Temple,  we  made 
our  way  to  the  Man  Mandir  Ghat,  close  by  Raja 
Jai  Singh's  lofty  seventeenth-century  observatory.* 
Here  we  embarked  in  a  barge  with  a  house  upon 
it,  on  the  roof  of  which  we  sat,  and  were  slowly 
rowed  up  the  Ganges  as  far  as  the  Ashi  Ghat,  and 
then  down  again  to  the  Mosque. 

The  river  bank  is  a  marvellous  sight.  The  Ghats, 
in  flight  after  flight  of  irregular  steps,  descend  the 
broken  precipitous  cliff  a  hundred  feet  to  the  water  s 
edge,  amongst  temples  and  shrines  of  all  sorts  and 
sizes.  Here  and  there  the  steps  widen  out  into  ter- 
races, and  on  them,  at  irregular  intervals,  are 
shrines  with  the  everlasting  old  cow  or  sacred 
bull  looking  in  at  the  front  door.  The  cliff  is 
crowned  by  high  houses  and  palaces,  pierced  with 

*  Old  travellers  tell  us  that  the  Brahmans  whose  business  it  was 
to  calculate  the  eclipses  of  sun  and  moon  (then  as  always  the 
occasion  for  religious  services  and  devotion)  were  trained  in 
astronomy  and  astrology  in  Benares. 


140 


BENARES 


deep  archways,  which  give  access  to  the  narrow 
streets  of  the  town,  and  culminate  in  domes 
and  slender  minarets.  The  effect  is  enhanced  by 
the  sweep  of  the  river,  which  bends  in  a  crescent 


THE   GHATS 


shape  facing  the  rising  sun.  Here  and  there  a 
palace  or  temple  breaks  away  from  the  main  line 
and,  projecting  forward,  descends  with  solid  breast- 
works of  masonry  to  the  water's  edge,  where  every 
variety  of  native  craft  lies  moored. 


THE  GHATS  BELOW  AURANGZEB'S 
MOSQUE,  BENARES 

"  Bathers  and  devotees,  in  a  continuous  stream,  ascend 
and  descend  these  steps  :  issuing  from  the  dark  arch- 
ways and  lanes  above,  they  collect  below  on  the  brink 
of  the  water,  under  huge  straw  umbrellas  ;  and  proceed 
by  one  operation  to  wash  away  their  sins,  to  wash 
their  bodies,  and  their  simple  and  scanty  clothing  as 
well.  They  then  gird  themselves  in  clean  attire  ;  and 
afterwards  return  to  one  of  the  terraces  to  have  their 
caste-marks  replaced  upon  their  foreheads  by  an  official 
of  the  temple  ;  he  is  provided  with  a  number  of  little 
saucers  filled  with  coloured  powders  for  the  purpose. 
This  done,  they  sit  on  a  plank  over  the  water  to 
meditate  and  bask  in  the  sunshine." 


THE    BATHERS  .  141 

A  stream  of  bathers  and  devotees,  in  the  most 
brilliantly  coloured  garments,  continually  ascends 
and  descends  the  steps :  issuing  from  the  dark 
archways  and  lanes  above,  they  collect  below  on 
the  brink  of  the  water,  under  huge  straw  umbrellas; 
and  behind  tall  screens,  which  protect  them  from 
the  heat  of  the  sun,  they  proceed  by  one  operation 
to  wash  away  their  sins,  to  wash  their  bodies,  and 
their  simple  and  scanty  clothing  as  well.    They 


then  gird  themselves  in  clean  attire;  and  afterwards 
return  to  one  of  the  terraces  to  have  their  caste- 
marks  replaced  upon  their  foreheads,  by  an  official 
of  the  temple ;  he  is  provided  with  a  number  of  little 
saucers  filled  with  colouredpowdersfor  the  purpose. 
This  done,  they  sit  on  a  plankover  the  water  to  medi- 
tate and  bask  in  the  sunshine.  The  pose  is  a 
squat,  and  the  devout  appear  to  hold  their  noses, 
comme  qa. 

I  was  charmed  by  one  scene  in  particular  which 


142  BENARES 

we  watched.  Two  graceful  women  in  bright-coloured 
silk  saris  came  down  the  steps,  each  carrying  on 
her  arm  a  folded  sari  of  a  different  hue.  Leaving 
this  on  the  brink,  they  stepped  down  as  they  were 
into  the  sacred  water  and  drank  and  dipped.  Com- 
ing back  to  the  step  in  the  wet  garments,  they 
wound  them  off,  and  simultaneously,  by  the  same 
mysterious  movement,  clothed  themselves  in  the 
fresh  silk  drapery  with  which  they  had  come 
provided.  The  process  of  transformation  was  as 
elusive  and  complete,  as  that  by  which  a  snow- 
capped mountain  is  changed  at  the  after-glow. 
Then  taking  the  strip  of  wet  drapery,  and  deftly 
gathering  it  in  narrow  folds  crosswise  in  either 
hand,  they  went  back  to  their  daily  occupations. 

The  worshippers,  standing  waist-deep  in  the 
river,  pour  libations  into  the  water,  murmuring 
as  they  do  so  the  words  from  the  Vedas  prescribed 
by  the  sacred  ritual,  and  also  cast  in  wreaths  of 
jasmine  flowers.  This  beautiful  scene,  however, 
has  another  side  to  it,  and  it  is  a  very  disagreeable 
part  of  the  business  that  they  drink  the  water  too. 
Dirty  stuff  it  looks  and  must  be,  and,  when  one 
knows  that  dead  bodies  are  constantly  floating 
down  stream,  one  wishes  that  the  devotees  might 
be  absolved  from  drinking  the  water  of  the  sacred 
river.  The  natives  are  not  content  with  putting 
their  fellow-creatures  into  the  river.  I  came  across 
a  horse  to-day,  and  have  no  doubt  the  sacred  cows 
end  their  existence  there  too.  Fortunately  the 
Calcutta  waterworks  are  provided  with  an  excel- 
lent system  of  filtration. 


CEREMONIAL  143 

We  spent  some  hours  on  the  river  sketching 
and  reading,  and  brought  our  tiffin-basket  with 
us.  It  was  quite  dark  before  we  got  back  to  the 
hotel. 

A  second  day — arrayed  in  fur  coats,  for  the 
mornings  are  bitterly  cold — we  embarked  once 
more  in  our  houseboat  about  8.30  and  rowed 
down  to  the  end  of  the  Ghats.  There  were 
thousands  of  bathers  at  that  hour  of  the  morning  : 
dressed  in  every  colour  of  the  rainbow,  they 
descended  and  ascended  the  footworn  steps — a 
very  gay  sight.  I  spent  the  day  sketching  until 
4.30,  when  we  walked  through  some  of  the 
picturesque  streets.  Here  and  there,  at  some  con- 
spicuous corner,  we  came  across  a  yogi,  squatting 
or  standing  with  arm  upraised,  appealing  to  high 
heaven  in  some  strained  attitude,  and  livid  with 
the  ashes  smeared  over  his  uncouth  body :  loath- 
some sight.  Or  we  noticed  a  string  of  low-caste 
women,  miserable  oppressed  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water,  carrying  prodigious  loads  upon 
their  heads  up  thie  steep  ascent  to  the  town.  Poor 
creatures,  theirs  indeed  must  be  a  hard  lot. 

From  the  beginning  of  life  to  its  end,  every 
detail  of  the  existence  of  these  230  millions  of 
Hindus  is  gripped  by  the  dead  hand  of  ceremonial 
ritual.  A  man  may  be  an  atheist  or  a  murderer, 
his  religious  status  is  unimpaired  ;  but  let  him 
unconsciously  drink  water  touched  by  a  man 
of  lower  caste  and  his  doom  is  sealed.  The 
conscience  is  perverted,  and  the  true  sense  of 
distinction    between  right  and   wrong    lost.    A 


144  BENARES 

pious  Hindu  dying  in  his  bed  at  home,  would 
be  considered  as  very  slack  in  obeying  the  precepts 
of  his  religion  ;  they  decree  that  he  shall  breathe 
his  last  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  ;  or,  if  that  is 
out  of  reach,  on  the  brink  of  some  neighbouring 
stream  or  tank.  The  dying  riian  is  carried  on  his 
string  bed  or  charpoy,  at  a  jog  trot,  for  miles  per- 
haps, to  the  sacred  stream,  by  relays  of  friends 
grunting  and  shouting  as  they  go  "Had,  haribol;" 
and  there  he  may  linger  for  days,  if  he  is  suffi- 
ciently tenacious  of  life  to  survive  the  repeated 
immersions  to  which  his  attentive  guardians  sub- 
ject him.  Old  people  have  sometimes  returned 
home  after  nine  or  ten  dippings,  but  more  often 
means  are  taken  to  prevent  this  disgrace,  and  the 
patient  expires  correctly.  The  body,  swathed  in 
red  or  white,  is  then  placed  on  a  funeral  pyre  of 
faggots  with  sandal  wood  and  ghee  ;  the  outcast 
Brahman,  who  alone  has  the  monopoly  of  sup- 
plying the  cremation  fire,  reads  the  prescribed 
formula,  and  the  nearest  relation  sets  the  pile 
alight.  All  that  is  left  unconsumed  of  the  body  is 
then  cast  into  the  river,  in  defiance  of  municipal 
regulations,  and  the  fire  extinguished  with  some 
jars  of  holy  water.* 

At  the  Burning  Ghat  beyond  the  Observatory, 
we  passed  several  such  funeral  pyres,  with  bodies 
upon  them  more  or  less  consumed  by  the  fire.  A 
man  standing  by  with  a  long  pole  raked  or  poked 

*  Though  the  expenses  of  this  ceremony  are  under  strict  poUce 
regulation,  yet  at  times  many  lakhs  of  rupees  are  spent  in  the 
funeral  feasts  which  take  place  a  month  later. 


A    BENARES    EKKA  145 

together  the  unburned  portions  of  the  poor  crea- 
tures' bodies, — a  truly  ghastly  sight,  but  not  so 
gruesome  as  another  sight  we  saw  a  little  later. 
\Vhen  we  first  commenced  our  voyage  on  the  river 
we  were  enchanted  by  this  never-to-be-forgotten 
scene,  and  my  companion  suggested  that  we  should 
stop  a  fortnight,  and  devote  the  time  to  sketching. 
Not  long  afterwards,  sitting  not  far  from  the 
water's  edge,  a  turn  of  the  head  revealed  a  floating 
corpse,  which  must  have  been  some  weeks  in  the 
water.  The  rower  merely  raised  his  oar  to  let  the 
ghastly  object  pass  ;  but  my  companion's  enthusi- 
astic plans  were  suddenly  modified. 

Next  day,  Sunday,  after  church  and  lunch,  I 
made  a  sketch  of  a  Benares  ekka — a  very  pictur- 
esque conveyance  with  double  shafts  on  either 
side,  drawn  together  on  the  top  of  the  pony's  back 
and  fastened  to  a  saddle.  The  trappings  of  some 
of  these  ekkas  are  very  bright  and  gay,  and  some 
have  a  canopy  like  a  bird-cage  on  the  top.  This 
'*  machine"  holds,  besides  the  driver,  two  persons, 
who  sit  sideways,  and  hang  their  legs  over  the 
wheels.  Alas  !  in  spite  of  the  endless  subjects,  I 
only  managed  to  get  time  for  three  sketches  in 
this  fascinating  place.  That  afternoon  we  left 
Benares  for  Lucknow  and  Cawnpore,  where  we 
were  to  realise  what,  in  1857,  was  the  outcome  of 
the  Hindu  fanaticism  of  which  Benares  is  the 
centre. 


BATHING   GHATS 


A  BENARES  EKKA 

A  PICTURESQUE  Conveyance  with  double  shafts  on 
either  side,  drawn  together  on  the  top  of  the  pony's 
back  and  fastened  to  a  saddle.  The  trappings  of  some 
of  these  ekkas  are  very  gay,  and  some  have  a  canopy 
like  a  bird-cage  on  the  top.  This  'machine'  holds, 
besides  the  driver,  two  persons,  who  sit  sideways,  and 
hang  their  legs  over  the  wheels. " 


Piafe  T4 


CHAPTER  VII 

LUCKNOW   AND   CAWNPORE  :  THE 
MUTINY 

LucKNOW,  the  largest  town  in  India  after  the  three 
capitals,  has  a  comparatively  modern  aspect,  and  the 
fantastic  buildings,  erected  during  the  last  hundred 
and  fifty  years  by  the  vicious  and  incompetent 
kings  of  Oude,  are  in  keeping  with  their  builders' 
character.  The  Nawabs  and  Kings  of  Oude  ruined 
their  people  with  a  crushing  taxation,  and  laid  deso- 
late a  most  fertile  country,  studded  with  villages 
and  finely  wooded,  in  order  to  spend  many  lakhs  of 
rupees  on  works  which  ministered  solely  to  the 
gratification  of  the  King  and  his  pleasure-seeking 
Court.  These  buildings  consist,  to  a  great  extent, 
of  tasteless  palaces  and  tombs,  in  a  most  debased 
style  of  architecture,  not  seldom  imitated  from  the 
worst  European  examplesof  the  eighteenth  century; 
and,  being  frequently  of  no  more  durable  material 
than  stucco,  they  are  often  in  a  condition  of  ex- 
treme dilapidation. 

From  a  distance  Lucknow  presents  a  most  de- 
ceptive appearance  of  splendour:  domes,  minarets 
and  quaintly  bizarre  pinnacles  lead  one  to  expect 
a  gorgeous  city  of  more  than  ordinary  oriental 


148        LUCKNOW   AND   CAWNPORE 

magnificence;  but  a  nearer  approach  produces  a 
disillusionment,  and  I  felt  no  desire  to  sketch, 
or  to  stay  here  longer  than  was  necessary  to  go 
over  the  places  made  memorable  by  the  Mutiny. 
So,  after  breakfast  at  Hill's  Hotel,  we  drove 
to  the  Cantonments,  some  one  and  a  half  miles 
off:  we  called  first  on  Colonel  May,  who  made 
an  appointment  for  four  o'clock  to  take  us  over 
the  Residency,  and  then  on  the  General  in  com- 
mand of  the  District,  General  Sir  ^neas  Perkins, 
and  his  wife,  who  asked  us  to  lunch.  The  General 
came  in  late,  in  the  middle  of  a  hard  day's  inspec- 
tion. He  is  a  great  friend  of  Lord  Roberts,  and 
was  with  him,  commanding  the  Engineers,  on  his 
memorable  march  in  Afghanistan  in  1878  and  1880. 

From  his  house  we  drove  in  a  body — all  except 
Sir  ^neas  and  his  A.D.C. — to  meet  Colonel  May. 

Before  the  Mutiny,  Colonel  May  was  a  civilian 
engaged  in  surveying  the  town  ;  he  went  through 
the  siege,  and  got  his  commission  after  it.  He 
knows  every  inch  of  the  ground,  and  is  an  excel- 
lent cicerone.  He  first  of  all  showed  us,  on  the 
cardboard  and  plaster  model  in  the  Museum,  the 
relative  positions  of  the  Residency  and  surround- 
ing buildings,  explaining,  and  putting  into  a  nut- 
shell, as  it  were,  a  concise  account  of  events  and  of 
their  connection  with  the  various  buildings  ;  and 
with  that  useful  preface,  we  went  on  to  the  spot 
itself,  and  were  much  better  able  to  understand  it 
from  our  preliminary  examination  of  the  model. 

Colonel  May  told  us  many  thrilling  incidents 
of  the  siege,  which  brought  the  scene  more  vividly 


SIR   HENRY    LAWRENCE  149 

before  one,  and  helped  to  illustrate  the  excellent 
accounts  given  in  Holmes'  ''  History,"  which,  on 
Purse's  recommendation,  we  had  just  been  reading. 
He  pointed  out  a  wall,  against  which,  he  told  me, 
he  was  sitting  one  day,  when  suddenly  a  round 
shot  struck  the  wall  between  his  legs.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  escape  of  a 
trooper  in  the  relief  force,  who  had  his  saddle 
destroyed  under  him,  by  a  blind  shell  which  passed 
between  his  thigh  and  the  horse's  back,  he  him- 
self, and  his  horse,  remaining  uninjured  ! 

We  were  much  impressed  with  the  great  dis- 
advantages under  which  the  mere  handful  of  heroic 
defenders  held  the  Residency,  from  May  7  to 
November  17,  1857,  with  the  enemy  close  to  them 
all  round,  and  under  cover,  in  houses  commanding 
the  position.  One  stretch  of  the  road  which  led 
through  the  enclosure,  was  swept  by  the  rifles 
which  the  mutineers  had  fixed  in  rests  in  a  house 
opposite;  and  for  any  one  to  show  himself  in  that 
road  was  certaindeath.  Fortunately  the  citypeople, 
and  the  entire  Hindu  population,  held  aloof  from  the 
outbreak,  owingto  Sir  Henry  Lawrence'sknowledge 
of  the  native  character,  and  to  his  tact,  firmness,  and 
decision.  It  can  never  be  too  often  repeated,  that 
none  of  the  heroism  displayed  during  the  siege 
would  have  availed  aught,  but  for  his  foresight  and 
ability,  which  made  the  defence  possible.  Very  early 
in  the  day  he — almost  the  only  Englishman  in 
India — foresaw  that  the  outbreak  was  inevitable, 
and  prepared  for  it.  Whilst  doing  all  that  his  expe- 
rience and  insight  suggested  to  keep  the  natives 


I50       LUCKNOW   AND   CAWNPORE 

loyal,  he  had  no  fear  of  showing  a  want  of  con- 
fidence in  them.  He  fortified  the  Residency, 
provided  an  adequate  water-supply,  and  stored 
ammunition  and  food,  ample  for  the  needs  of  the 
defenders  (even  when  on  September  25  their 
numbers  were  augmented  by  the  3000  men  under 
General  Havelock),  thus  enabling  the  garrison 
to  hold  out  till  November  17,  when  Sir  Colin 
Campbell  relieved  Lucknow. 

The  buildings  in  which  the  enemy  found  shelter 
are  now  cleared  away  :  the  Residency  itself  is 
merely  a  beautiful  ruin,  and  the  whole  place  is  very 
much  overgrown  with  creepers — bougainvillea, 
bignonia,  and  others — against  which  Colonel  May 
vowed  vengeance.  We  thought  that  these,  and  the 
trees  which  have  grown  up  very  thickly  on  all 
sides  since  1857,  ii^uch  enhanced  the  beauty  of 
the  spot.  We  made  time  next  day,  before  leaving,  to 
drive  again  to  the  Residency,  to  see  Henry  Law- 
rence's simple  grave  and  moving  epitaph.  The  gar- 
dens and  cemetery  are  all  beautifully  kept,  and  one 
is  grateful  that  this  scene  of  peace  and  order  should 
form  a  foreground  for  one's  thoughts  of  the  two 
thousand  brave  men  and  women  (amongst  whom 
the  native  troops  were  conspicuous  for  heroism 
and  loyalty)  who,  led  by  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  the 
best  of  the  brave,  "tried  to  do  their  duty"  and 
laid  down  their  lives  in  defence  of  the  Banner 
of  England.  In  Henry  Lawrence's  words,  "  May 
the  Lord  have  mercy  on  their  souls." 

We  dined  in  the  Cantonments,  and  spent  a 
pleasant   evening,  but  I   never  expected  that  at 


UNFRUITFUL    EFFORTS  151 

Lucknow  we  should  be  going  out  to  dinner 
wrapped  in  fur  coats  and  rugs — through  a  thick 
mist  like  a  London  fog. 

Next  day,  Tuesday,  I  took  a  short  walk  about 
eight,  and  looked  in  at  the  Church,  where  I  came 
in  for  the  tail  end  of  Matins.  After  breakfast  we 
drove  to  the  copper  and  brass  bazaar,  a  very  narrow 
street  lined  with  small  low  shops,  supported  on 
most  dainty  wooden  pillars,  all  decorated  with  re- 
fined carving. 

Since  the  city  has  been  under  British  rule,  much 
has  been  done  to  widen  the  streets  and  bazaars, 
and  to  provide  for  the  health  and  sanitation  of 
what  was  one  of  the  most  wretched  and  dirty  towns 
in  the  whole  of  India;  but,  although  Lucknow 
ranks  as  the  centre  of  the  Hindu  schools  of  music, 
of  learning,  theology,  and  literature,  and  though 
trade  and  manufacture  have  revived,  and  the  native 
nobilityof  the  province  have  established  themselves 
in  the  city  again,  yet  the  population  has  apparently 
decreased.  Famine  and  disease  appear  to  have 
defeated  all  our  well-intentioned  efforts  fort  he  res- 
toration of  prosperity  to  this  sorely  tried  city. 

We  had  to  get  to  the  station  by  1.30  to  catch  our 
train  for  Cawnpore,  which  we  reached  about  five, 
and  leaving  Lobo  and  the  luggage  at  the  station,  we 
went  straight  to  an  hotel,  had  tea  and  got  the  pro- 
prietor to  take  us  round  and  show  us  the  scenes  of 
the  horrors  of  the  massacre.  He  is  an  old  soldier, 
and  came  to  the  relief  of  the  place  under  Havelock 
(July  15, 1 857),  arriving  just  too  late  to  save  the  poor 
women  and  children.  He  was  an  extremely  voluble 


152        LUCKNOW   AND   CAWNPORE 

old  fellow,  and  is  now  a  monomaniac  on  the  subject 
of  the  massacre  and  the  part  he  took.  He  blew  his 
own  trumpet  very  loudly  on  the  same  note,  and 
his  way  of  expressing  himself  was  much  involved ; 
the  story  was  mixed  and  exaggerated,  and  the 
sprinkling  of  superlatives  so  thick  that  it  was  not 
easy  to  make  head  or  tail  of  what  he  said.  How- 
ever, fortunately  the  invaluable  Holmes  was  at 
our  command,  and  supplied  the  facts  for  his  topo- 
graphical illustrations. 

We  saw  the  scene  of  the  entrenchment,  a 
miserably  weak  place  with  its  well  in  a  most  ex- 
posed position ;  and  we  marvelled  at  the  decision 
which  led  the  veteran  Sir  Hugh  Wheeler — in  the 
face  of  Lawrence's  advice, — to  abandon  the  walled 
enclosure  on  the  river,  and — giving  over  the  maga- 
zine and  ammunition  into  the  keeping  of  Nana 
Sahib  and  the  native  troops — to  entrench  himself, 
withonly  three  hundred  English  soldiers  and  seven 
or  eight  hundred  non-combatants,  behind  four- 
foot  earthworks  in  the  centre  of  an  open  plain. 
"  Surely" — as  Lord  Roberts  says  of  this  incident 
— "  Surely  those  whom  God  has  a  mind  to  destroy 
He  first  deprives  of  their  senses." 

For  intensity  of  suffering  during  the  Mutiny 
Cawnpore  stands  first,  but  there  is  nothing  fine 
or  striking  to  the  imagination  in  the  tale  of  mis- 
placed trust,  nervous  fright  and  confusion,  and 
bad  management,  which  Cawnpore  reveals.  For 
twenty-one  days,  without  proper  supplies,  and 
under  the  intense  heat  of  the  June  sun.  Sir  H. 
Wheeler  and  his  company  were  exposed  to  the  fire 


THE    MASSACRE   GHAT  153 

of  three  thousand  mutineers,  whose  guns  were  in 
incredibly  close  proximity ;  then,  trusting  still 
to  Nana's  loyalty,  they  surrendered  on  June  26,  on 
the  condition  that  they  were  given  boats  and  sup- 
plies and  allowed  to  retire  with  honour  down  the 
Ganges. 

The  many  instances  of  heroic  valour  shown 
during  this  time  are  overshadowed,  and  seem 
merely  pathetic  beside  the  ghastly  instances  of 
misplaced  confidence  which  led  to  the  massacre 
at  the  Sati  Chaura  Ghat,  and  to  the  horrors  of  the 
Bibi  Garh  and  Well,  where  **the  dying  and  the 
dead,"  and  even  some  unhurt  children,  were  con- 
signed indiscriminately  on  July  15,  when  Have- 
lock's  rescuing  force  was  at  the  door.  It  was 
almost  dark  when  we  reached  the  fatal  Well,  with 
its  memorial  screen,  and  white  Angel  designed 
by  Colonel  Yule.  They  are  far  more  beauti- 
ful in  reality  than  in  the  photographs  generally 
seen. 

Fortunately,  perhaps,  the  thought  of  the  tragedy 
was  relieved  for  us  by  interludes  of  comedy :  the 
guidewho  drove  us  intermixed  his  Mutiny talkwith 
conversation  on  his  private  affairs,  and  expressed 
the  opinion  that  there  are  many  scenes  in  family 
life  more  terrible  than  the  battle-field.  Pointing  to 
the  cemetery,  he  said,  "  I  buried  a  wife  and  a  babe 
in  arms  there ;  both  died  of  cholera  in  one  day. 
I  have  got  another  now,  who  plays  six  instru- 
ments and  sings  in  the  choir  of  the  Memorial 
Church.  I've  had  seven  children  and  three  wives, 
not  to  mention  being  wounded  three  times  on  the 

u 


154        LUCKNOW   AND   CAWNPORE 

field  of  battle.  But  the  field  of  battle  ain't  no  wuss 
than  scenes  in  the  life  of  a  private  party.  It's  all 
down  in  that  book  of  mine  on  Cawnpore.  Why, 
it's  the  most  interesting  place  in  the  world  is 
Cawnpore,  the  most  interesting  place  since  God 
created  this  earth — talk  about  Delhi  and  Agra, 
why  there's  nothing  but  buildings  there,  whereas 
here  was  the  massacre,  saw  it  with  my  own  eyes 
— man,  woman  and  child  at  the  breast  slaughtered 
— the  most  interesting  place  in  the  world — you 
ought  to  stop  a  week  here,"  &c. 

A  wild-looking  fanatical  Yogi  was  haranguing  an 
attentive  crowdof  natives  near  theTemple of  Shiva, 
on  the  bank  of  the  river  at  the  Massacre  Ghat,  and 
we  were  told  that  he  was  recounting  the  story 
of  the  wretched  defenders,  decoyed  on  that  fatal 
June  27  into  open  boats,  under  a  safe  conduct,  and 
then  shot  down  defenceless  from  the  banks.  We 
could  not  feel  then  thatMarochetti's  beautiful  angel 
over  the  Well  represented  the  presiding  genius  of 
Cawnpore,  but  rather  that  the  fiendish  spirit  which 
had  animated  Nana  Sahib  was  only  smouldering, 
and  that  fifty  years  of  Western  secular  education, 
as  assimilated  by  the  Hindu,  would  not  protect  us 
from  another  outbreak  of  treacherous  fanaticism. 

The  aspect  of  God  and  man,  of  life  and  its 
ideals,  which  we  present  to  the  Hindu,  those,  who 
have  studied  their  character,  tell  us,  does  not  im- 
press them  as  it  should,  because  it  does  not  fit  into 
their  ways  of  thought.  Part  of  this  difference  in 
our  mental  and  spiritual  furniture  is  the  product  of 
climate  and  national  idiosyncrasy,  and  part  arises 


HINDU    IDEALS  155 

from  the  contrasting  character  and  practices  of  the 
Hindu  and  Christian  religions.  But,  what  a  nation 
believes  about  fundamental  things  is  indissolubly 
connected  with  the  form  of  civilisation  it  exhibits. 
You  cannot  separate  institutions  from  ideas. 
And — behind  the  idolatry,  the  slavery  of  the  caste 
system,  the  immoral  Hindu  pantheon,  and  the 
dwarfing  and  degrading  Hindu  ceremonial — the 
Hindu  has  ideals,  attractinghim,  and  controllinghis 
life,  which  are  not  ours  ;  and  no  mere  contact  with 
European  civilisation  or  liberating  enlightenment 
will  ever  really  remove  him  from  their  sway.  Deep 
down  in  the  heart  of  things,  in  the  soul  of  India, 
in  the  region  of  first  principles  and  foundations, 
there  are  differences  and  contrasts,  which  are  abso- 
lute :  and  this  difference  prevents  the  native  from 
appreciating  the  liberty  accorded  by  our  adminis- 
tration, the  justice  of  our  law  courts,  or  the  self- 
denying,  single-minded  devotion  to  duty  and  the 
common  good,  shown  by  our  civil  servants  and 
statesmen.  The  Hindu  must  have  brought  home 
to  him  the  supreme  excellence  of  the  fundamental 
ideas  concerning  God,  man,  and  life,  which  Chris- 
tianity embodies,  before  our  efforts  to  benefit  him 
and  to  raise  his  status  can  bear  fruit. 

In  the  Hindu's  view  of  the  Supreme  God 
(Brahma),  the  idea  of  absolute  Intelligence  and 
Wisdom  is  paramount ;  in  that  of  the  Christian, 
infinite  Goodness  and  perfect  Will  are  specially 
accentuated.  The  Hindu,  therefore,  in  his  aspira- 
tions towards  likeness  to  his  Divine  Ideal,  is  con- 
stantly striving  after  perfect  knowledge,  but  the 


156         LUCKNOW    AND    CAWNPORE 

Christian,  though  aspiring,  as  he  does,  to  "  know 
as  he  is  known,"  and  accepting  with  his  Lord 
that  "eternal  life"  which  is  **to  know  God," 
yet  lays  the  emphasis,  above  all,  on  the  attainment 
of  the  good  life  and  on  character.  This  is  specially 
apparent  in  the  aspects  of  Incarnation  which  are 
proper  to  the  two  religions.  To  the  Christian  the 
spotless  character  of  the  Incarnate  Lord,  and  His 
cross,  and  death  are  essential ;  but  Krishna  the  in- 
carnation of  Vishnu  has  no  concern  with  ethics,  and 
comes — not  to  suffer  and  give  life  but — to  destroy. 
Again,  self-renunciation  and  ascetic  practices  play 
a  part  in  both  the  religions,  but  to  the  Hindu  his 
austerities — when  not  intended  to  be  a  means  of 
acquiring  power  over  gods  and  men — are  an  end  in 
themselves.  He  renounces  equally  the  mean,  vile 
things  of  earth  and  the  noblest  aspirations  of  his 
heart.  Even  a  good  deed  is  a  fetter  binding  him 
to  the  *'  wheel  of  circumstance,"  and  to  this  human 
existence,  which  he  would  be  quit  of  as  soon  as 
possible.  To  the  Christian,  self-renunciation  is  a 
means  to  an  end.  The  lower  is  forsaken  that  he 
may  attain  to  a  higher,  and  the  "  cross  of  self- 
effacement  is  the  path  of  the  crown  of  true  self- 
realisation."  Then,  again,  to  the  Christian,  the  ideal 
future  means  life,  "  the  glory  of  going  on,  and  still 
to  be  "  ;  to  the  Hindu,  it  is  a  calm  blank,  with  every 
emotion  of  joy  and  act  of  service  swept  away. 
This  attitude  of  the  Hindus  has  been  explained 
by  the  fact  that  they  have  had  a  hard  lot  between 
a  bad  climate  and  a  worse  government ;  and — 
taking  the  future  life  to  represent  only  another 


THE    BROTHERHOOD    MISSION     157 

existence  where  they  will  "  repeat  in  large  what 
they  practised  in  small  " — they  feel  no  desire  to 
embark  on  it,  and  so  crave  absorption  or  extinction. 
Practically  of  course  the  average  Englishman 
might  often  be  taken  for  a  materialist,  and  the 
Hindu  shows  far  more  insight  than  he  does  into 
spiritual  things,  and  strenuousness  in  pursuit  of 
them.  Nevertheless  there  is  clearly  a  gulf  fixed 
between  the  kind  of  thought  and  civilisation  and 
religion  which  affirms  the  value  of  individuality 
and  effort — which  affirms  the  personality  of  man 
and  of  God — and  that  civilisation  and  religion 
which  regards  the  persistent  striving  of  humanity 
to  live  and  to  realise  itself  as  an  illusion,  a  mis- 
take, a  source  of  evil.  The  two  ideals  clash  in 
matters  fundamental  and  crucial. 

Happily  the  Indian  Government  now  recognises 
that  "education  in  the  true  sense  means  something 
higher  than  the  mere  passing  of  examinations, 
that  it  aims  at  the  progressive  and  orderly  de- 
velopment of  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind,  that 
it  should  form  character  and  teach  right  conduct, 
that  it  is,  in  fact,  a  preparation  for  the  business  of 
life."  And  much  has  been  done  in  Cawnpore,  to  set 
forth  the  foundation  truths  at  the  root  of  our 
ideals,  since  the  days  when  Harry  Martyn  first 
preached  there  a  century  ago,  and  since  an  S.P.G. 
missionary  was  amongst  those  murdered  in  the 
Bibi  Garh.  Two  brothers,  sons  of  Bishop  West- 
cott,  started,  in  1889,  the  Brotherhood  Mission, 
where  now  seven  English  and  two  native  clergymen 
run  industrial  schools,  boarding-houses,  a  college, 


158         LUCKNOW   AND    CAWNPORE 

and  hostels  for  native  and  Christian  students  ;  and 
besides  this,  there  are  an  S.P.G.  women's  hospital, 
a  dispensary,  and  orphanages.  On  the  one  hand, 
encouragement  is  to  be  found  in  Sir  Alfred 
Lyall's  assurance,  that  the  Hindu,  being  profoundly 
spiritual,  and  feeling  the  burden  of  the  mystery  of 
life  and  death,  needs  in  the  object  of  his  worship 
something  akin  to  human  sympathy,  and  in  the 
fact  that  the  story  of  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
is  beginning  to  form  an  ideal  of  life  among  some 
classes ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  assured  that 
educated  converts  are  now  rare,  for  India  now 
clings  passionately  to  her  old  faiths  with  nervous 
apprehension,  and  never  before  have  the  educated 
men  stood  up  with  more  determination  for  their  old 
ideals.  How  far  we  Westerns,  with  our  lack  of 
sympathy,  which  perhaps  originates  in  want  of 
imagination,  are  responsible  for  this,  it  is  hard  to 
say ;  but  the  Western  and  the  Eastern  minds 
move  on  different  planes  still,  and  while  this  is 
so  we  shall  continue  to  hold  India  by  the  sword. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

AGRA:  THE  CITY  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

We  rumbled  over  the  iron  bridge  which  spans 
the  Jumna  immediately  north  of  the  Fort,  and 
entered  Agra  station  at  4  o'clock  in  the  morning ; 
but  it  was  not  till  six  hours  afterwards  that  we 
felt  in  a  mood  to  be  interested  in  our  surroundings ; 
then,  as  it  was  Ash  Wednesday,  we  sallied  out  and 
made  inquiries  about  church  services.  We  found 
that  they  were  already  over,  so  went  to  leave  our 
cards  on  General  Pretyman,  who  had  just  taken 
over  the  command  of  the  district,  and  proceeded 
to  the  Fort.  The  beauty  of  this  place  quite  exceeded 
my  expectation,  and  I  wished  we  could  have  de- 
voted more  time  to  it  than  we  had  at  our  disposal. 
It  is  grand  as  a  whole — a  huge  pile  of  red  sand- 
stone— and  the  details  and  designs  of  the  palaces, 
mosques,  and  halls  which  it  contains  are  exquisite 
to  a  degree,  and  wonderfully  refined,  with  many 
traces  of  Italian  workmanship. 

Agra  Fort,  from  about  the  time  of  our  Henry 
VIII.'s  accession  till  shortly  after  the  date  of 
Charles  I.'s  death,  was  the  centre  of  the  Mogul 
Empire ;  the  buildings  here  are  the  glory  of  that 
period,  when  Mohammedan  architecture  in   India 


i6o  AGRA 

reached  its  climax.  The  Emperor  Akbar,  perhaps 
one  of  the  greatest  and  most  liberal-minded  rulers 
commemorated  by  history,  lived  here  during  the 
early  years  of  his  life.  It  is  to  him  that  we  owe 
the  double  line  of  noble  red  sandstone  walls,  70  feet 
high,  with  a  circumference  of  over  a  mile;  they  en- 
close within  their  precincts  a  remarkable  group  of 
palaces,  mosques,  halls  of  state,  baths,  kiosques, 
balconies  and  terraces  overhanging  the  river,  all 
nobly  designed  and  exquisitely  decorated  by  Akbar 
and  his  successors,  Jehangir  and  Shah  Jehan. 
After  a  period  of  thirty  years,  passed  either  in  war 
or  at  the  Royal  City  of  Fatehpur  Sikri — the  crea- 
tion of  his  unique  genius — Akbar  eventually  re- 
turned to  die  here  in  his  red  palace  overlooking  the 
river.  Hissonjehangirleftfewtraces  in  Agra,  except 
perhaps  in  the  JasminTower,for  he  travelled  much 
and  lived  chiefly  at  Lahore,  or  Ajmere,  where  he 
received  Sir  Thomas  Roe,  James  I. 's  ambassador; 
but  several  European  travellers  have  left  glowing 
accounts  of  this  capricious  and  peculiar  sove- 
reign's court  at  Agra,  and  of  the  beauty  and  in- 
fluence of  his  Afghan  wife,  Noor  Jehan. 

To  Shah  Jehan  is  due  all  that  is  most  refined 
and  most  delicately  beautiful  in  the  architecture  of 
Agra.  Fergusson  draws  attention  to  the  immense 
contrast  between  the  manly  vigour  and  exuberant 
originality  of  the  style  of  Akbar,  with  its  rich 
sculpture  and  squarely  Hindu  construction,  and  the 
extreme  but  "  almost  effeminate  elegance  "  of  that 
of  Shah  Jehan,  and  condemns  the  latter  as  feebly 
pretty;  his  work,  however,  interested  me  personally 


AGRA  FORT— OUTSIDE  THE  DELHI 
GATE 

"  The  Emperor  Akbar,  perhaps  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  liberal-minded  rulers  commemorated  by 
history,  lived  here  during  the  early  years  of  his  life. 
It  is  to  him  that  we  owe  the  double  line  of  noble  red 
sandstone  walls,  70  feet  high,  with  a  circumference  of 
over  a  mile;  they  enclose  within  their  precincts  a 
remarkable  group  of  palaces,  mosques,  halls  of  state, 
baths,  kiosques,  balconies  and  terraces  overhanging 
the  river,  all  nobly  designed  and  exquisitely  decorated 
by  Akbar  and  his  successors,  Jehangir  and  Shah 
Jehan." 


AGRA    FORT 


i6i 


more  than  that  of  his  predecessor,  and  seemed  to 
me  more  picturesque.  The  transition,  which  cer- 
tainly is  great,  may  perhaps  be  traced  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the    Italian,    French,  and   Portuguese 


THE  JUMMA   MUSJID 

artists  who  were  employed  by  Jehangir  and  Shah 
Jehan  ;  they  certainly  introduced  the  system  of  in- 
laying coloured  marbles  and  precious  stones,  which 
the  Moguls  made  their  own,  with  such  high  taste 
and  skill  during  this  period.*  Like  that  other  great 

*  Bernier,  a  French  physician,  in  the  service  of  the  Court  at 
Agra,  in  1760,  mentions  the  ability  shown  by  the  native  craftsmen 
in  the  exercise  of  this  and  other  European  arts. 

X 


i62  AGRA 

patron  of  art,  Ludovico  il  Moro,  Shah  Jehan,  after 
a  life  of  the  greatest  splendour,  died  a  prisoner. 
Aurangzeb,  his  son,  confined  him,  in  Imperial 
state,  in  the  Harem  here  ;  his  devoted  daughter, 
''the  humble,  transitory  Jehanira,  the  servant 
of  the  holy  men  of  Chist,"  as  she  described  herself 
in  her  epitaph,  tended  him  there  for  seven  years. 
In  his  last  days  of  weakness,  he  begged  to 
be  laid  in  an  upper  chamber  whence  he  could  see 
the  Taj  Mahal,  the  "  dream  in  marble "  he  had 
raised  in  memory  of  his  much  loved  Persian  wife, 
Arjmand  Banu,  or  Muntazi  Mahal,  who  died  at 
Jehanira's  birth:  so,  in  i665,ended  the  passionate 
life  of  Shah  Jehan,  "  emperor  and  lover,  devotee 
and  artist." 

After  Jehan's  death  the  centre  of  Empire  was 
moved  to  Delhi,  and  Aurangzeb,  intent  on  con- 
quests in  distant  parts  of  India,  did  not  return  to 
Agra  ;  a  century  of  anarchy  followed,  and  termi- 
nated in  1803,  when  Lord  Lake  took  possession 
of  the  district  for  the  East  India  Company. 

I  do  not  think  any  buildings  I  have  ever  seen 
can  approach  the  Agra  Fort  and  Taj  Mahal  for 
beauty  and  dignity.  The  Fort  extends  about  half 
a  mile  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Jumna,  which, 
passing  through  a  waste  of  land,  flat  but  broken, 
here  takes  a  sharp  bend  to  the  east:  across  its  dark 
green  waters  and  sandy  bed,  one  gets  a  glorious 
view  of  the  beautiful  Taj  Mahal,  rising,  in  its  gar- 
land of  green  garden,  out  of  the  colourless  sand, 
like  a  fairy  palace  raised  by  some  genii  in  an 
Arabian  nights'  tale. 


NAGINA    MUSJID 


163 


It  is  impossible  to  enter  into  details  on  so  large 
a  subject,  but  one  of  the  places  which  interested 
me  greatly  in  the  Fort  was  the  Nagina  Musjid, 
or  Toy  Mosque,  where  the  ladies  of  Shah  Jehan's 
palace  said  their  prayers,  and  close  to  which 
he  was  imprisoned  by  his  son.  The  blackened 
ceiling  of  a  part 


^'^% 


of  the  cloisters, 
said  to  have  been 
used  by  him  as 
baths,  is  still 
shown  as  a  trace 
of  his  long  cap- 
t  i  V  i  t  y.  The 
Mosque  is  of 
pure  white  mar- 
ble, on  a  tiny 
scale,  on  the  first 
floor  of  the  pal- 
ace, and  over- 
looks the  Mina  Bazaar,  where  jewellers  used  to 
assemble  to  show  their  trinkets  to  the  ladies,  who 
looked  down  into  the  courtyard  through  a  stone 
screen  outside  the  mosque.  Through  the  same 
screen  the  Imperial  prisoner  used  to  watch  the 
wild  beast  fights  held  below. 

Then,  on  a  great  bastion,  there  is  the  Saman 
Burj,  or  Jasmin  Tower,  where  the  chief  Sultana 
lived,  an  exquisite  octagonal  two-storeyed  turret — 
an  ethereal  building  of  white  marble  with  a  cupola 
overlaid  with  gold — which  commands  a  glorious 
view  over  the  Jumna,  or  rather  down  it,  to  the  Taj. 


ON  THE  WALL  OF  THE  FORT 


i64  AGRA 

The  Pietra  Dura  work  here  is  said  to  be  the 
handiwork  of  Austin  of  Bordeaux,  a  French 
craftsman  who  found  asylum  with  the  Moguls 
from  the  hand  of  justice  in  his  own  land,  and 
is  reported  to  have  been  subsequently  poisoned 
by  some  native  professional  rival.  This  delicate 
marble  inlay  work,  and  the  low  reliefs  in  white 
marble,  are  marvellously  beautiful ;  they  are  espe- 
cially noticeable  in  the  Diwan-i-Khas,  or  Private 
Hall  of  Audience,  where  the  Great  Mogul  used 
to  settle  his  domestic  affairs.  He  sat  under 
arches  of  white  marble  of  exquisite  proportions, 
with  slender  twelve-sided  columns  all  inlaid  with 
elaborate  floral  designs,  in  jasper,  agate,  jade,  cor- 
nelian, lapis  lazuli  and  bloodstone,  hardly  less 
bright  than  the  roses  and  pansies  which  still 
bloom,  within  their  white  marble  bordering, 
amongst  the  vines  and  the  cypresses  in  the  palace 
garden  below. 

These  marble  galleries,  pavilions  and  terraces, 
in  bewildering  complexity,  crown  the  summit  of 
the  vast  red  wall  overhanging  the  river,  between 
the  two  great  circular  bastions ;  they  are  raised 
upon  a  vast  series  of  subterranean  galleries,  stairs 
and  passages,  partly  explored  in  the  search  for 
hidden  treasure,  and  secret  entrances,  when  the 
English  population  was  concentrated  here  during 
the  Mutiny.  Some  of  these  suites  of  rooms  had 
been  walled  up  since  the  days  of  Shah  Jehan. 

The  gateways  of  this  grand  citadel,  especially 
the  Delhi  Gate,  are  very  imposing.  Within  theDelhi 
Gate  is  a  second  gate,  flanked  by  two  octagonal 


AGRA  FORT— INSIDE  THE 
DELHI  GATE 

"The  gateways  of  this  grand  citadel,  especially  the 
Delhi  Gate,  are  very  imposing.     Within  the  Delhi 
Gate  is  a  second  gate,  flanked  by  two  octagonal  towers,        .  j -_. 
and  surmounted  by  cupolas. "  I  •  r  -I  I  /     le^--^ 

vinch  stin 


piau  /ordering, 


THE   TAJ  165 

towers,  and  surmounted  by  cupolas.  Here  I  was 
sketchingin  the  afternoon,  when  who  should  appear 
driving  past,  but  our  kind  host  when  in  Adelaide, 
Chief  Justice  Way,  and  Dr.  Pennefather.  I  halloed 
to  them  to  stop,  and  we  arranged  to  meet  at  the  Taj, 
and  accordingly  drove  there  towards  sundown. 

The  entrance  gateway  to  the  precincts  of  the 
Taj  is  in  itself  a  splendid  building  of  sandstone 


THE  TAJ   FROM  THE  ROAD  TO   AGRA 


from  Fatehpur  Sikri,  and  marble  from  Jeypur  ; 
anywhere  else  it  would  claim  attention,  but  it  is 
disregarded  and  forgotten  after  the  first  glimpse 
through  the  archway  which  frames  in  the  object  of 
our  pilgrimage.  Before  us  is  a  rectangular  garden, 
flanked  by  massive  red  walls,  which  are  overtopped 
by  dark  trees,  festooned  with  bougainvillea  ;  it  is 
planted  with  cypresses  and  roses,  between  straight, 
marble-lined  watercourses  and  crossing  paths 
and  is  a  very  paradise  of  birds.  There  upon 
a  raised  marble   platform,  isolated  from  all  its 


i66  AGRA 

immediate  surroundings,  except  the  four  sentinel 
minarets,  and  with  no  background  but  the  sky, 
shines  the  glorious  face  of  the  Taj  itself. 

Before  entering  we  must  just  glance  at  three 
small  and  insignificant  objects,  arranged  upon  a 
projecting  ledge  of  the  base  of  the  gateway.  A  disk 
of  battered  copper  hangs  by  a  leather  thong  from 
a  horizontal  bar  of  wood  fastened  to  two  upright 
posts  of  stone  :  from  the  same  posts  is  suspended 
a  row  of  twelve  large  beads  by  a  string,  attached, 
at  each  end,  to  the  knobs  on  the  tops  of  the  posts, 
and  a  rude  mallet  lies  beneath.  What  is  the  mean- 
ing of  these  queer  objects  ?  This  is  an  old-world 
clock,  worked  by  a  human  agent,  who  sits  and 
watches  below.  When  a  fresh  hour  arrives  he  gets 
up,  passes  a  bead  from  one  side  to  the  other,  strikes 
the  copper  disk,  or  gong,  with  strokes  correspond- 
ing to  the  hour  of  the  day,  and  squats  down  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  next  hour.  How  he  dis- 
covers what  the  time  actually  is,  whether  he 
guesses  it,  or  whether  he  keeps  a  Waterbury  in 
the  folds  of  his  loin-cloth,  I  did  not  ascertain. 

The  sun  had  set  some  minutes  as  we  looked 
for  the  first  time  through  the  gateway  to  the  great 
Mausoleum  :  the  garden  was  all  in  shade,  while  a 
soft  pearly  light  was  hovering  about  the  domes  of 
the  Taj — intensified  by  the  warm  colour  of  the 
sandstone  arch  through  which  we  gazed.  Its  size, 
its  completeness,  its  solemn  and  dignified  sur- 
roundings, and  its  pearly,  opalesque  colour  in  the 
evening  light,  combined  to  give  this  most  re- 
markable building  so  ethereal  an  aspect  that  we 


A    PRIMITIVE   CLOCK 


167 


approached  it  almost  with  awe,  which  seemed  to 
demand  that  here  we  should  take  the  shoes  from 
off  our  feet  and  uncover  our  heads. 


A   PRIMITIVE  CLOCK 


I  know  my  experience  is  commonplace  and  my 
enthusiasm  vieux  jeu;  it  would  be  more  up  to 
date  to  take  up  a  flippant  attitude  ;  but  I  have 
no  patience  with  the  people  who  criticise  the 
architecture,  proportions  and  designs  of  the 
Taj  Mahal.  No  doubt  the  Taj  stands  at  the  high- 


168  AGRA 

water  mark  of  Mogul  art,  and  its  immediate 
descendants  totter  on  the  verge  of  decadence  ;  but 
it  is  certainly  a  wonderful  creation,  and  as  Mr.  Way 
said,  the  words,  "  A  house  not  made  with  hands," 
involuntarily  occur  to  one:  I  felt  that  one  ought 
not  to  speak  above  a  whisper  when  approaching 
it.  One  remarkable  feature  of  the  group  is  its 
wonderful  symmetry.  Every  part  has  some  other 
part  which  exactly  balances  it;  ajawab,or  "answer," 
has  even  been  built  on  the  east  side  facing  the 
west,  as  an  exact  pendant  to  the  mosque  on  the 
west  side.  If  there  is  a  kiosque  on  one  side  of 
the  garden  there  is  a  similar  one  on  the  other. 
If  there  is  a  turret  at  this  angle  of  the  garden  there 
is  another  to  correspond  at  that.  These  buildings, 
all  red  sandstone,  white  marble  and  mosaic,  are  in 
themselves  grand,  but  here  they  have  to  find  their 
level  in  a  subordinate  position.  The  most  attractive 
views  are  where  the  great  white  building  appears 
amongst  the  cypress  trees,  and  where  the  four 
corner  minarets  are  somewhat  hidden  ;  for,  if  there 
is  room  for  hypercriticism  about  anything,  it  would 
be  in  respect  to  these  minarets.  They  irresistibly 
suggest  lighthouses,  and  the  bands  across  do  not 
tend  to  carry  the  eye  upwards  to  the  dome,  as 
flutings — such  as  there  are  on  the  Delhi  minarets — 
would  do. 

We  visited  the  Taj  several  times,  and  saw  the 
interior  by  the  light  of  lamps,  and  by  moonlight; 
but  the  subdued  twilight,  which  is  all  that  pene- 
trates through  the  double  set  of  marble  lattice- 
screens  in  the  daytime,  is  no  doubt  the  best  by 


THE    TAJ-MAHAL  169 

which  to  appreciate  its  mysterious  depths,  and 
the  jewelled  sprays  and  garlands  and  touches  of 
coloured  marble,  with  which  the  unerring  judg- 
ment of  the  artist  has  given  value  to  the  balance 
of  the  scheme.  There  is  considerable  pathos  in  the 
prayer  on  the  tomb  of  Arjmand,  to  be  "  defended 
from  unbelievers." 

We  took  special  notice  of  the  delicate  Pietra 
Durav^ox\i  on  the  tomb  of  Shah  Jehan.  It  seems 
more  beautiful  even  than  that  upon  the  tomb  of 
his  wife  beside  it,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
how  the  fine  stalks  and  veins  of  the  flowers  could 
have  been  cut  out  of  marble  and  fitted  into  their 
places  with  such  precision  as  is  here  displayed.*  I 
wished  I  had  time  to  copy  some  of  the  designs. 
But  time  was  always  the  great  difficulty  :  there 
were  so  many  things  that  I  felt  I  must  do  while 
I  had  the  opportunity.  First  of  all,  I  had  to  try 
and  verify  all  the  Handbook  statements,  and  do 
what  I  could  to  put  the  descriptions  straight. 
Then  I  had  the  things  described  to  see  ;  though 
that  perhaps  should  come  first !  Thirdly,  I  had 
my  diary,  which  I  did  not  like  to  give  up, 
having  gone  so  far  with  it,  even  though  it  is  a  very 
prosy  chronicle  of  events.  Then  I  wanted  to  sketch 
as  much  as  my  time  would  permit,  for  certainly 
such  an  opportunity  will  never  recur.  And  finally, 
and  in  conclusion,  I  must  get  some  exercise  and 
eat  and  sleep,  as  I  was  still  human,  though  I  had 
seen  the  Taj. 

*  Tavernier,  the  French  traveller  and  jeweller  in  Agra  at  the 
time,  says  that  20,000  men  were  employed  on  the  Taj  for  22  years. 

Y 


I70  AGRA 

This  evening  we  lingered  for  some  time,  and  it 
was  dark  before  we  left  the  precincts  of  the  Taj.  I 
walked  back  a  good  part  of  the  way  with  the  Chief 
Justice  Way  ;  then  we  got  into  his  carriage,  which 
was  slowly  following,  and  drove  back  to  the  world 
of  prose,  and  all  dined  together. 

Next  morning  early,  Mr.  Way  and  his  party 
started  for  Delhi.  I  went  to  the  Fort  and  spent 
four  hours  hard  at  work,  putting  straight  the  ac- 
count in  the  Handbook.  I  came  across  an  intelli- 
gent private  of  the  Leinster  Regiment  who  has 
been  three  years  in  this  Fort,  and  he  gave  me  a 
good  deal  of  help. 

I  was  charmed  with  the  Moti  Musjid — the  Pearl 
Mosque  in  the  Fort ; — it  is  quite  perfect  in  its  way. 
It  stands  on  a  raised  platform,  and  is  approached 
by  a  double  flight  of  stairs.  The  exterior,  of  rough 
red  sandstone,  makes  no  pretensions  to  effect ; 
within  is  a  glorious  vision  of  warm  white  marble, 
delightfully  veined  in  different  tones  of  white, 
grey,  and  pale  azure,  and  with  mellow  touches  of 
yellow.  No  colour  invades  the  precinct  with  its 
central  water  basin,  only,  above  the  seven  beautiful 
arches  of  the  mosque  proper — which  faces  one  with 
its  nine  light  cupolas  and  three  domes — runs  a 
broad  Persian  inscription  in  black  marble.  Even 
the  critical  Fergusson  allows,  that  the  moment  the 
eastern  gateway  is  entered  the  effect  of  its  court- 
yard and  graceful  arches  is  surpassingly  beautiful, 
and  hardly  approached  anywhere  for  purity  and 
simplicity  :  it  is  a  superb  house  of  God,  calling  all 
who  enter  it  to  prayer.   From  the  terrace  on  the  top 


rove  back  to  the  vs 

then 

'.  Way  and  his  party 

,>  ihi'  T^arf  And  Spent 

'   the-  ac- 
THE  TAJ   FROM  THE  FORT,  AGRA, ;^, p.:.. 

"  The  Fort  extends  about  half  a  mile  along  the  right 
bank  of  the  Jumna,  which,  passing  through  a  waste  of 
land  flat,  but  broken,  here  takes  a  sharp  bend  to  the 
east.  Across  its  shimmering  waters  and  sandy  bed 
may  be  seen  the  pearly  dome  and  the  minarets  of  the 
Taj  Mahal  rising  out  of  their  setting  of  gardens  and 
trees,  which  descend  to  the  water's  edge." 

exterior,  of  rough 
nsion^'^^cr  effect ; 
trm  white  marble, 
I  tones  of  white, 
!  mellow  touches  of 

t.rr  riiirt    with    its 

beautiful 
one  with 
— runs  a 

le.  Even 
iintnt  the 
ts  court- 
neautifiiJ, 
irity  and 
ailing  all 

.  -.n  ihrur 


THE    JUMMA   MUSJID  171 

of  the  cloisters  hard  by — when  my  work  was  done 
— I  got  a  sketch,  across  the  Fort  and  down  the 
river  to  the  Taj  with  its  fair  white  domes  and  mina- 
rets reflected  in  the  water. 

After  breakfast  on  February  13,  I  walked  to 
the  Great  Mosque,  the  Jumma  Musjid,  close  to 


THE  JUMMA   MUSJID 


the  Fort.  The^oad  there  is  rather  a  typical  one. 
There  is  much  dust — in  fact,  a  general  tone  of 
dust  pervades  everything;  the  scanty  grass  by  the 
roadside,  which  has  not  already  been  browsed  down 
by  half-starved  donkeys  and  cattle,  is  brown  and 
dead  ;  but  there  is  not  much  of  it.  The  road  is 
lined  with  low  one-storied  buildings — shops,  for 
the  most  part,  open  to  the  street,  supported  by  low 
carved  pillars  and  sheltered  by  awnings  of  straw. 
Swarthy  people  squat  among  their  wares,  smoking 
their  hookahs  (often  without  mouthpieces),  and 


172  AGRA 

drawing  the  smoke  straight  from  the  bowl.  The 
roadway  itself  is  thronged  with  people — many  of 
the  women,  carrying  brass  pitchers  and  other  heavy 
loads  upon  their  heads,  are  clad  in  bright  colours, 
with  rows  of  bangles  round  their  wrists  and  ankles ; 
the  men,  in  less  brilliant  but  more  motley  clothes, 
trouble  themselves  less  with  heavy  loads  than  the 
gentler  sex.  Here  and  there  a  well-laden  camel, 
with  supercilious  expression,  comes  striding 
through  the  crowd,  making  the  garis  and  ekkas 
look  small  beside  him. 

The  Jumma  Musjid  is  a  grand  building  of  red 
sandstone  and  marble  in  herring-bone  courses; 
though  built  by  Shah  Jehan  in  1644,  it  approaches 
more  nearly  tothe  earlier  vigorous  style  of  his  prede- 
cessors. He  built  it  in  the  name  of  his  noble 
and  devoted  daughter  Jehanira,  who  subsequently 
shared  his  captivity  here,  and  whose  unassuming 
tomb  with  its  touching  epitaph  we  visited  near 
Delhi.  This  mosque  has  lost  its  great  gateway, 
which  was  pulled  down  by  the  English,  as  they 
thought  it  threatened  the  Fort,  and  might  be  made 
use  of  to  strengthen  an  enemy's  position. 

Whilst  sitting  in  the  hotel  verandah,  watching 
the  constant  stream  of  comers  and  goers,  European 
and  native,  we  recognised,  in  the  depths  of  the  bird- 
cage canopy  of  a  native  ekka,  the  well-known  face 
of  the  venerable  Father  Benson  of  Cowley.  I  say  we 
recognised  his  face,  but  his  face  was  the  last  part 
of  his  person  to  meet  our  gaze;  it  was  Mxs^feet  that 
first  caught  our  eye  down  the  road,  projecting  be- 
yond the  side  of  the  native  conveyance.  An  ekka 


AN    EKKA  173 

is  a  very  inconvenient  vehicle  for  Europeans,  and 
one  in  which  they  are  seldom  seen.  Its  floor  con- 
sists of  a  tightly  stretched  canvas,  on  a  square 
frame — a  most  suitable  resting-place  for  the  flexible 
body  of  a  squatting  native — but  to  a  European,  who 
cannot  double  himself  up  like  the  Hindu,  it  pre- 
sents this  problem,  difficult  of  solution — what  is 
he  to  do  with  his  legs?  In  front  they  are  in  the  way 
of  the  driver  ;  the  build  of  the  ekka  often  makes  it 
impossible  to  project  them  behind  ;  and  so  he  is 
compelled  to  stick  them  out  at  the  side,  over  the 
wheel,  contact  with  which  he  has  constantly  to  be 
careful  to  avoid.  The  good  old  gentleman's  posture 
was  distinctly  quaint,  and  unlike  that  usually 
aflected  by  people  of  his  wise  and  reverend  char- 
acter ;  I  could  not  resist  making  a  sketch,  of  the 
manner  of  his  appearance  on  the  scene,  which  I 
slipped  into  a  letter  to  a  friend  at  home,  and  next 
heard  of,  to  my  consternation,  on  the  walls  of  the 
common-room  at  Cowley !  Father  Benson  was 
then  making  a  visitation  tour  of  the  Mission- 
stations  of  his  society  in  various  parts  of  the  world ; 
and  he  left  for  Lucknow  that  afternoon. 

We  dined  with  the  Pretymans  and  spent  a  very 
pleasant  evening.  The  heat  here  seems  to  be  ex- 
tremely trying  in  the  summer  ;  the  thermometer 
frequently  stands  as  high  as  115°  all  night,  and  this 
is  one  of  the  stations  where  to  make  sleep  possible, 
the  bheestie  is  sometimes  requisitioned  several 
times  in  the  night  to  pour  water  over  the  beds,  a 
most  effective  method  of  inducing  rheumatism. 

After  church  on  Sundaymorning  at  St.  George's, 


174  AGRA 

where  the  General  read  the  lessons,  in  uniform, 
we  drove  six  miles  to  see  Akbar's  magnificent 
tomb  at  Sikandra.  It  stands  in  the  centre  of  a 
large  walled  garden,  with  a  gateway  in  the  middle 
of  each  of  the  four  walls.  The  one  by  which  we 
entered  is  a  splendid  building  of  red  sandstone, 
inlaid  with  marble,  and  surmounted  by  four  white 
marble  minarets,  the  tops  of  which  have  been  de- 
stroyed. 

The  tomb  is  most  original,  and  not  like  any 
other  tomb  in  India.  It  is  a  four-storeyed  pyra- 
midal building  of  red  sandstone,  rising  in  a  step 
fashion  to  the  uppermost  tier  of  white  marble. 
This  consists  of  a  beautiful  courtyard,  surrounded 
by  a  cloister  of  nine  bays  on  each  side,  and  fur- 
nished with  windows  of  open  lattice-work  of 
exquisite  designs.  In  the  centre,  floating  as  it 
were  between  earth  and  sky,  is  the  cenotaph,  and 
close  beside  it  a  pedestal,  which  once  held  the 
Koh-i-nor.  The  dome,  which  a  traveller  of  the 
sixteenth  century  tells  us  was  designed  to  cover 
the  central  space,  was  never  added.  The  building 
bristles  with  small  kiosques  and  pavilions  of  white 
marble  and  red  sandstone  :  and  the  vestibule  of 
the  tomb  is  richly  decorated  with  frescoes. 

Here  we  had  our  picnic  lunch,  and,  whilst 
admiring  the  view  from  the  top,  we  heard  the 
sound  of  church  bells,  and  turning  saw  buried 
amongst  the  trees  the  little  church  of  the  C.M.S. 
Orphanage.  We  descended  and  went  to  it.  It  con- 
tained a  large  congregation  of  natives,  consisting 
chiefly  of  the  orphans;  boys  in  European  dress  on 


SIKANDRA 


175 


one  side,  and  girls  in  a  mongrel  costume  on  the 
other.  The  service  was  of  course  in  the  ver- 
nacular ;  and  as  we  entered  we  found  them  reading 
the  evening  Psalms.  When  the  lessons  were  read 


they  squatted  on  mats  on  the  floor.  They  were 
all  attentive,  but  we  were  struck  by  a  certain 
lack  of  reverence.  No  one  seemed  to  kneel  during 
prayers,  but  sat  or  squatted  very  much  at  their 
ease. 

In  1660  there  was  a  really  large  population  of 
Christians  at  Delhi.  Akbar  protected  the  Jesuit 
Mission,  and  they  built  a  church  ;  but  Shah  Jehan 


176  AGRA 

pulled  thespiredown,  because  the  continual  ringing 
of  bells  annoyed  him.  Except  in  the  cemetery  this 
early  community  left  no  trace. 

We  drove  back  by  the  Muttra  Road — the 
Appian  Way  of  Agra — it  is  lined  the  whole  way 
with  tombs.  Along  this  avenue,  on  a  wet,  dark  night 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Mutiny,  Mark  Thornhill, 
the  Muttra  magistrate,  escaped  for  his  life,  with 
the  very  uncertain  prospect  of  reaching  and  gaining 
admittance  to  the  Fort  at  Agra.  It  was  fortunate 
for  him  that  he  possessed  true  and  loyal  friends  in 
the  Seths,  the  native  bankers  at  Muttra,  and  by 
their  influence  he  evaded  the  clutches  of  the  muti- 
neers at  Muttra.  With  one  Englishman  and  Dil- 
war  Khan,  a  staunch  native  officer,  and  a  handful 
of  half-hearted  native  followers,  he  rode  away 
from  the  Seths'  house  at  nightfall,  disguised  in 
native  dress.  The  night  was  dark,  for,  although 
there  was  a  moon,  it  was  constantly  shrouded  by 
heavy  rain-clouds,  and  the  fitful  gleams  of  light 
only  served  to  intensify  the  shadows  of  the  dark 
avenue  beneath  which  their  journey  lay. 

After  proceeding  some  distance  theybecame  con- 
scious of  a  mysterious  sound  which  seemed  to  pro- 
ceed from  the  side  avenue  on  their  right,  and  which 
resembled  the  dull  clanking  of  a  chain.  The  dark- 
ness was  so  great  they  could  distinguish  nothing, 
not  even  the  trees  ;  the  sound  shortly  ceased, 
and  they  proceeded  with  caution  on  their  way. 
Soon  afterwards  they  encountered  two  men, 
mounted  on  a  camel,  who  turned  out  to  be  the 
Seths'  messengers,  returning  to  Muttra  with  the 


MUTINEERS 


177 


news  of  a  battle  outside  Agra  ;  they  reported  that 
afterwards  the  English  had  fallen  back  on  Agra 


A   STREET   IN   AGRA 


Fort  before  the  mutineers,  who  had  established 
themselves  in  the  town  and  cantonments.  A  short 
interval  passed,  and  the  mysterious  sound  they 


178  "  AGRA 

had  already  heard  caught  their  ear  again  ;  this 
time  there  was  no  mistaking  a  clear  low  clank- 
ing of  chains,  coming  from  the  side  of  the  road. 
The  trees  were  here  thinner,  and  a  faint  glimmer 
of  light  showed  a  row  of  dark  figures,  proceeding, 
like  dim  phantoms,  in  single  file,  closely  follow- 
ing each  other.  The  ground  being  soft,  the  foot- 
steps were  not  discernible,  but  with  every  move- 
ment came  the  clanking  of  a  chain.  They  now 
noticed  a  dull  glare  along  the  horizon,  which 
became  more  distinct  as  they  advanced.  It  was 
evident  that  Agra  was  in  flames,  and  the  truth 
dawned  upon  them  that  this  line  of  dim  forms 
was  a  body  of  prisoners,  escaped  from  the  Agra 
gaol,  making  their  way  to  Muttra.  So  close  did 
the  dismal  procession  pass,  that  at  one  time  they 
almost  touched  Mark  Thornhill's  party ;  but  they 
appeared,  however,  to  be  unconscious  of  his  pre- 
sence and  made  no  attempt  to  molest  him.  For 
many  miles  the  same  scene,  like  some  incident  in 
Dante's  "Inferno,"  recurred  continually  ;thegroups 
of  prisoners  passed  at  ever  closer  intervals,  until 
they  came  across  a  wayside  hut  with  a  body  of  men 
drinking.  Catching  sight  of  English  saddles  on  the 
horses  tethered  outside,  they  realised  that  they 
were  inside  the  lines  of  the  mutineers,  and  galloped 
for  their  lives.  Long  before  this  their  mounted 
escort  had  melted  away,  and  the  party  was  reduced 
to  three  men  and  a  boy.  As  they  rode  along 
a  side  avenue,  they  passed  a  body  of  mounted 
troopers,  one  of  whom  confronted  them  and  bade 
them  halt :  putting  their  jaded  horses  once  more 


A    MOGUL   TOMB  179 

to  a  gallop,  Dilwar  Khan  shouted  that  they  were 
bearing  despatches  from  the  Emperor  of  Delhi  to 
Agra,  and  they  dashed  forward.  They  were  not  pur- 
sued, but  pressed  on,  past  the  smouldering  frame- 
work of  the  burning  bungalows.  By  daybreak  their 
eventful  ride  came  to  an  end,  and  they  were  re- 
ceived into  Agra  Fort. 

Along  this  same  road  we  made  our  way  to  the 
J umna,  and  crossed  by  a  bridge  of  boats  to  the  tomb 
of  Itmad  ud  Daulah — the  Prime  Minister  of 
Jehangir,  and  father  of  his  ambitious  and  masterful 
wife  Noor  Jehan,  or  Normall  as  Roe  calls  her. 

It  isacharmingbuilding — there  is  nothing  grand 
about  it — but  it  is  in  every  part  pretty;  surrounded 
by  a  good  garden,  and  built  upon  the  banks  of  the 
river,  it  must  always  be  a  delightful  spot.  The 
tomb  of  a  great  Pathan  or  Mogul  personage  was 
usually  erected  during  his  own  lifetime,  on  a 
square  terrace  in  an  enclosed  garden  ;  it  was  used 
as  a  place  for  feasting  and  recreation  in  the  cool  of 
the  evening,  by  himself  and  his  friends,  until 
the  day  when  his  body  was  laid  in  the  crypt  below 
the  central  chamber  under  the  dome.  Then  it  was 
handed  over  to  the  care  of  priests,  who  made  what 
they  could  out  of  the  garden,  and  its  produce,  and 
the  alms  of  those  who  visited  the  tomb.  Often,  in 
the  more  magnificent  tombs,  the  family  and  rela- 
tions are  buried  under  the  smaller  rooms  which 
cluster  round  the  central  domed  space. 

The  tomb  of  this  great  man  is  of  this  kind,  it  is 
built  of  yellow  marble,  and  stands  in  the  centre  of 
a  small  square  building  of  white  marble,  one  storey 


i8o  AGRA 

high,  whilst  smaller  chambers,  round  the  central 
one,  contain  minor  tombs.  At  each  of  the  four 
angles  is  a  round  tower,  about  twice  the  height  of 
the  building,  surmounted  by  a  cupola,  and  in  the 
centre,  forming  a  small  second  storey,  is  a  pavilion 
containing  the  cenotaph. 

The  whole  of  the  building  outside  is  covered 
with  elaborate  Pietra  Dura  work,  of  which  it 
is  the  earliest  example  in  India,  and  a  great  part 
of  the  interior  is  similarly  decorated.  The  re- 
mainder is  adorned  with  frescoes  of  flowers 
trees,  &c.,  the  windows  filled  with  marvellously 
delicate  marble  lattice-work,  and  in  the  return  of 
the  doorways  overhead  is  some  remarkably  fine 
low-relief  sculpture. 

We  drove  back  through  the  native  town,  which 
abounds  in  **  subjects."  On  our  way  we  passed  a 
marriage  procession,  the  betrothed  bridegroom, 
poor  little  fellow — aboutfour  years  of  age — was  fast 
asleep,  being  held  on  his  saddle  by  a  man  who  rode 
behind  him  on  the  same  horse — fast  asleep  in  spite 
of  the  deafening  sound  of  tomtoms  and  pipes.  The 
day's  work  had  been  too  much  of  a  good  thing  for 
him  at  any  rate. 

The  old  town  is  an  amusing  place.  "Of  course 
he  has  got  into  the  old  town,"  my  friends  will  say  ; 
so  I  have,  but  these  Eastern  towns  are  out  and 
out  more  interesting,  and  far  less  dirty  than  those 
of  Europe.  I  think  that  even  the  most  inartistic 
person  would  be  fascinated  bythem.  Imagine  a  tor- 
tuous street  of  irregularflat-topped houses,  with  the 
domes  and  minarets  of  a  mosque  towering  above 


he  hc%i 
\  and  in  t.  , 
avilion 


THE  BAZAAR,  AGRA 

"  The  road  is  lined  with  low  one-storeyed  buildings- 
shops,  for  the  most  part,  open  to  the  street,  supported 
by  low  carved  pillars  and  sheltered  by  awnings  of 
straw.     Swarthy   people   squat   among    their    wares,         ■ , 
smoking  their  hookahs.     The   roadway  is   thronged      . 
with  people— many  of    the  women,  carrying  brass 
pitchers  and  other  hea\y  loads  upon  their  heads,  are 
clad   in  bright   colours,  with  rows  of  bangles  round 
their  wrists  and  ankles  ;  the  men,  in  less  brilliant  but 
more  motley  clothes.     In  the  distance  rises  the  gre?it , .  ■  i.'l) 
gateway  of  the  Fort."  ^^^   .^^^    paSSed    a 

whed  bridegroom, 
years  of  ag^<Q»?-»'as  fast 
idle  by  a  man  who  rode 
c — ^fost  asleep  in  ^pite 
iitoms  and  pipes.  The 
f»  ux.  iiiuch  of  a  good  thing  for 

-Ofcou 

uis  wills..  : 
')Ut  and 
in  those 


with  the 
liT  above 


A    STREET   SCENE  i8i 

them.  The  street  is  thronged  with  people,  all  in  the 
brightest  coloured  or  white  garments,  and  no  two 


A    STREET    IN    AGRA 


of  them  dressed  alike.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
women,  and  the  white-clothed  men,  are  carrying 
hugeweightsupon  their  heads,  the  biggest  of  which 


i82  AGRA 

is  a  basket  containing  ten  spherical  earthenware 
pots,  each  one  i8  in.  in  diameter.  Amongst  them 
come  bustling  along  parties  of  three  or  four  per- 
sons in  an  ekka,  all  engaged  in  shouting  to  the 
crowd  to  clear  out  of  the  road;  then  towering  above 
all  and  everybody  comes  a  string  of  camels  with 
huge  burdens  on  their  backs.  The  street  is  lined 
with  small  shops,  into  which  the  buyer  does  not 
enter,  for  the  shop  has  no  inside  to  speak  of,  it  is 
more  like  a  booth  or  stall,  and  all  the  goods  are 
displayed  in  the  street  front.  The  merchant  or 
workman  squats,  or  sits  cross-legged  amongst  his 
wares,  at  the  height  of  one's  elbow  above  the  street. 
They  are  full  of  bright  colours,  these  shops,  and  with 
awnings  above  them  and  sunshine  glintingthrough 
and  intensifying  the  shadows  of  the  deep  recesses 
behind  ;  they  form  most  picturesque  subjects. 

Besides  selling  en  evidence,  they  make  all  their 
wares  before  the  eyes  of  the  public.  In  one 
part  the  people — always  men — are  all  engaged  in 
making  gold  lace — in  another,  slippers.  Here  they 
are  polishing  bits  of  glass  ;  next  door  they  are 
making  the  tinsel  to  set  them  in,  for  tawdry  orna- 
ments. There  a  colony  is  wholly  given  over  to 
making  stems  for  hookahs,  and  close  by  they  are 
making  the  bowls.  When  it  comes  to  hard  work, 
then  the  men,  lazy  dogs,  make  the  women  work  ; 
as  I  passed  along  I  counted  twenty-five  women 
grinding  corn  in  their  hand-mills,  all  together  in 
one  place,  whilst  the  easy  work  of  winnowing, 
&c.,  was  being  done  by  the  men.  Poor  women, 
they  are  terrible  drudges  in  this  country ! 


AN    INTELLIGENT   AUDIENCE      183 

I  spent  a  good  part  of  the  next  days  sketching. 
After  breakfast  one  day,  with  a  boy  to  carry  my 
sketching-bag,  I  sallied  forth  to  explore  a  part  of 
the  old  town  which  I  had  not  seen  before.  There 
was  little  of  interest — the  houses  mostly  of  mud, 
but  here  and  there  some  good  doorways.  The  boy 
wanted  to  prevent  my  going,  and  when  I  came  to 
a  stream  about  10  ft.  wide,  I  knew  the  reason  why. 
The  natives,  like  himself,  having  of  course  no  shoes 
or  stockings  to  think  of,  had  no  difficulty  in  cross- 
ing. It  was  different  with  me,  and  they  were  in- 
clined to  laugh  ;  but  I  took  off  my  hat  and  put 
down  my  umbrella,  and  having  screwed  up  my 
stiff"  old  limbs  and  set  my  teeth,  I  ran  at  it  and 
cleared  it,  much  more  easily  than  I  had  expected, 
unused  as  I  am  to  such  gymnastics.  I  sketched  a 
beautiful  doorway  with  a  father  and  two  sons 
sitting  in  it.  I  had  an  intelligent  audience,  and 
amongst  them  a  young  man  who  told  me  he  had  left 
his  Arabic  lesson  to  watch  me.  He  said  the  old  man 
in  the  doorway  had  been  the  Kazi  of  Agra,  that 
he  had  once  been  very  rich,  but  now  he  was  poor. 
I  asked,  "Why?"  and  was  met  with  the  compre- 
hensive reply,  "Because  he  drink  rum."  They  were 
all  Mohammedans,  but  apparently  it  was  not  only 
in  the  matter  of  rum  the  precepts  of  their  religion 
sat  on  them  lightly,  for  they  did  not  mind  being 
sketched  as  the  Arabs  do.  I  once  tried  to  sketch 
some  Arabs  in  Algiers :  they  constantly  evaded  me, 
and  at  last  an  old  Moor — with  whom  we  were  on 
the  friendly  terms  produced  by  constant  bargaining 
for   embroidered    "rags" — spoke   to   me   on   the 


i84  AGRA 

matter  like  a  father,  for  my  good.  "It  is  not,"  he 
said,  "that  any  harm  will  ensue  to  those  whose 
picture  you  make;  it  is  you  yourself  will  suffer 
inconvenience  in  the  next  world.  Allah  will  say 
to  you :  *  Following  your  own  will  and  pleasure, 
you  have  made  those  figures.  I  now  command  you : 
give  them  souls.'  And  where,  my  friend,  will  you 
be  then  ?  " 


THE  JUMMA  MUSJID,  AGRA 

"A  GRAND  building  of  red  sandstone  and  marble; 
though  built  by  Shah  Jehan  in  1644,  it  approaches 
more  nearly  to  the  earlier  vigorous  style  of  his  pre- 
decessors." 


CHAPTER   IX 

FATEHPUR   SIKRI,  THE    WINDSOR   OF 
THE    GREAT    MOGUL 

The  name  of  Akbar's  Royal  city  is  not  very 
familiar  to  English  ears,  although  distinctly  better 
known  now  than  it  was  twenty  or  even  ten  years 
ago. 

The  history  of  Fatehpiir  Sikri  is  short,  for  the 
good  reason  that  the  great  potentate  and  warrior 
had  not  long  settled  in  the  city,  which  his  genius 
created,  when  the  impure  water  and  the  unhealthi- 
ness  of  the  neighbourhood  compelled  him  to  leave 
his  palaces  and  to  remove  his  Court. 

But  there,  almost  intact,  it  has  remained  for 
three  centuries — a  dead  monumental  city,  no 
longer  instinct  with  the  life  and  splendour  of  an 
Emperor's  Court,  but  given  over  to  the  bats  and 
the  wild  beasts  and  to  the  tender  mercies  of  a  few 
poor  country  folk. 

The  climate  of  an  Indian  winter  in  the  plains 
is  delightful  and  exhilarating.  Cool  nights  and 
cloudless  days,  with  hot  sun  at  noon,  follow^  one 
another  in  regular  succession,  and  it  was  in  such 
weather  as  this  that  we  found  ourselves  on  our 
way  from  Agra  to  Fatehpur  Sikri,  twenty  miles 
distant  across  the  plain.  The  road  by  which  we 


i86    THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

quitted  Agra  was  thronged  with  a  motley  coloured 
crowd,  which  gradually  grew  thinner  as  we  emerged 
from  the  town  and  entered  a  long  straight  avenue, 
which,  passing  between  fairly  green  fields  and 
through  scattered  mud  villages,  extends  all  the 
way  to  Fatehpur  Sikri.  The  drive  is  a  pleasant 
one,  with  plenty  of  life,  human  and  otherwise, 
along  a  road,  the  distances  on  which  are  marked 
by  milestones  fifteen  feet  in  height,  erected  by  the 
Great  Mogul. 

We  pass  here  and  there  a  camel-caravan  resting 
by  the  roadside,  with  huge  packs  of  cotton  waiting 
to  be  loaded  up,  bright-painted  ekkas  crowded  with 
country  folk,  bullock-waggons  with  picturesque 
parties  of  women  and  children  chanting  strange 
wild  songs,  and  oxen  in  pairs  drawing  water  from 
many  wells  to  irrigate  the  neighbouring  fields. 

In  the  less  populous  parts  of  our  route  we  be- 
come quite  intimate  with  the  many  kinds  of  birds 
which  abound  in  this  country,  from  the  kite  and 
the  white  vulture  to  the  wagtail.  Doves  fly  about 
us  or  run  across  the  road  before  the  horses'  feet 
like  ducks  in  a  country  lane.  Countless  green 
parrots,  with  bright  red  beaks — always  in  a  hurry 
— fly  swiftly  past  us,  or  chase  one  another 
screaming  among  the  branches  of  the  tamarind 
trees,  which  form  a  leafy  arch  above  our  heads. 
Here  we  put  up  a  partridge  and  there  a  jungle 
crow,  or  start  a  blue  jay,  whose  wings  glisten  in 
the  sunlight  as  he  flies  away  to  a  little  distance 
and  perches  on  a  Persian  wheel  to  see  us  pass. 
Then  there  are  hoopoes  and  hooded  crows,  minah 


AKBAR'S    MILESTONE  187 

birds,  and  others  too  numerous  to  name.  As  for 
the  tiny  palm  squirrels,  they  are  as  plentiful  as 
flies,  and  so  tame  that  they  seem  to  think  it  hardly 
necessary  to  get  out  of  our  way. 


ONE   OF  AKBAR'S   MILESTONES 


Fatehpur  Sikri  is  built  on  a  low  ridge  command- 
ing extensive  views  over  the  surrounding  plain. 
We  climb  the  jungle-covered  ascent,  drive  past 
tenantless  palaces  and  through  empty  squares,  and 
draw  up  before  the  Record  Office,  now  converted 
into  the  dak  bungalow,  or  rest-house,  for  travellers. 
Here  we  are  received  by  the  salaaming  attendant 


i88    THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

in  charge  of  the  house,  and  enter  to  take  up  our 
quarters. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  time  between  the 
year  1569  and  1605  the  Emperor  Akbar was  making 
conquests  in  India  far  andwide,  but  in  the  intervals 
of  fighting  he  found  time  to  plan  and  build  this 
remarkable  city,  with  all  the  elaborate  arrange- 
ments necessary  for  the  administration  of  a  great 
state,  the  life  of  a  distinguished  Court,  and  the 
support  of  an  extensive  armed  retinue.  In  former 
days  the  west  side  of  this  red  city — for  it  is  built 
entirely  of  red  sandstone — was  bounded  by  a  vast 
lake,  which  has  now  disappeared.  Its  other  sides 
were  surrounded  by  embattled  walls,  of  which  the 
greater  part  still  remains,  enclosing  an  area  of  some 
two  or  three  square  miles.  These  walls  are  pierced 
by  seven  gateways,  flanked  by  grim  semi-circular 
bastions,  and  one  of  these  gateways  is  supported 
by  two  gigantic  stone  elephants,  now  much  muti- 
lated, which  raised  and  united  their  trunks  over 
the  archway,  giving  the  name  of  Hathi  Pol,  or 
Elephant  Gate,  to  this  approach  to  the  city. 

We  had  the  good  fortune  to  bear  an  introduction 
to  Mr.  E.  W.  Smith,*  who,  as  archaeologist  and 
architect,  was  then  at  work  for  the  Government, 
measuring,  mapping,  and  drawing  the  city  and 
its  palaces.  He  has  since,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  India  Office,  brought  out  a  most  important 
book  on  the  subject  in  four  volumes.  I  cannot  do 
better  than  quote  some  of  his  introductory  words 
about  the  chief  buildings  : 

*  Mr.  Smith,  I  regret  to  learn,  has  since  died. 


I90  THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

"  Several  of  the  buildings  have  enormous  front- 
ages, extending  to  350ft.  and  400ft.,  while  others 
are  so  heavily  laden  with  detail  that  hardly  a  square 
inch  remains  uncarved.  Fergusson,  in  speaking  of 
them,  says:  'It  is  impossible  to  conceive  anything 
so  picturesque  in  outline,  or  any  building  carved 
to  such  an  extent,  without  the  smallest  approach 
tobeingoverdoneor  in  bad  taste.'  .  .  .  The  build- 
ings consist  of  two  classes,  religious  and  domestic, 
and  for  beauty  and  richness  of  design  rank  among 
the  finest  in  India."  After  enumerating  many  of 
the  buildings,  Mr.  Smith  continues :  "  There  are 
many  other  important  structures  full  of  interest 
to  the  student  of  Indian  architecture,  the  artist, 
and  the  antiquarian,  and  ranking  among  the  fore- 
most are  the  Turkish  baths.  They  are  built  of 
rubble  masonry,  and  the  interior  walls  are  coated 
in  stucco,  panelled,  and  profusely  decorated  with 
incised  geometrical  patterns,  the  dados  being 
polished  and  painted.  No  two  buildings  are  alike 
in  design.  The  great  Masjid,  a  copy  of  one  at 
Makha,  and  extensively  inlaid  with  marble  and 
enamel,  is  second  to  none  in  the  country." 

The  Buland  Darwaza,  or  Gate  of  Victory,  which 
forms  the  southern  entrance  to  this  mosque,  is 
the  loftiest  building  in  Fatehpur  Sikri,  and  is 
approached  by  a  stately  flight  of  steps.  On  the 
right  side  of  the  entrance  is  the  following  inscrip- 
tion in  Arabic,  "  Said  Jesus,  on  whom  be  peace  ! 
the  world  is  a  bridge,  pass  over  it  but  build  no 
house  there."  Within  is  the  last  resting-place  of 
Shaik  Salim  Chisti,  a  fakir  who  lived  an  ascetic 


"^ 


m 


THE    MOSQUE   AND    GATE   OF 
VICTORY,  FATEHPUR  SIKRI 

"  The  Buland  Darwaza,  or  Gate  of  Victory,  which 
forms  the  southern  entrance  to  Akbar's  mosque,  is  the 
loftiest  building  in  Fatehpur  Sikri,  and  is  approached 
by  a  stately  flight  of  steps,  At  the  entrance  is  the 
following  inscription  in  Arabic,  '  Said  Jesus,  on  wliom 
be  peace  !  the  world  is  a  bridge,  pass  over  it  but  build 
no  house  there.'  " 


BEAUTIFUL    DETAILS  191 

life  in  a  cave  hard  by  and  exercised  an  extraordi- 
nary influence  over  Akbar.  This  little  tomb,  beau- 
tifully designed  and  intricately  sculptured,  is  one 
of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  Mogul  architec- 
ture, and  lies  like  a  jewel  of  white  marble  in  its 
red  sandstone  surroundings — it  is,  indeed,  the  only 
building  in  the  whole  city  which  is  not  of  the 
coarser  material.  There  are  several  other  note- 
worthy tombs  in  the  courtyard  of  the  mosque,  and 
just  inside  is  that  of  Salim  Chisti's  infant  son, 
a  diminutive  but  nevertheless  much-venerated 
shrine,  where  a  light  is  always  kept  burning. 

As  we  left  the  sacred  spot  the  sun  was  on  the 
horizon,  and  from  a  high  minaret  we  heard  the 
summons  of  the  faithful  to  prayer,  a  call  to  which 
there  were  but  few  to  respond.  One  of  the  most  re- 
markablebuildings  in  the  cityis  the  Diwan-i-Khas, 
or  private  hall  of  audience  ;  it  consists  of  a  single 
square  chamber  with  an  entrance  in  the  middle 
of  each  of  its  four  sides.  From  the  centre  of  the 
floor  a  large  octagonal  pillar  rises  to  the  height  of 
the  sills  of  the  upper  windows,  where  it  is  sur- 
mounted by  a  huge  circular  capital.  This  capital 
carries  no  weight,  but  is  connected  with  the  four 
corners  of  the  building  by  four  stone  causeways, 
or  galleries,  radiating  from  it,  and  approached 
from  the  ground  on  the  north-west  and  south-east 
corners  by  narrow  staircases  in  the  thickness  of  the 
wall.  The  definite  purpose  of  this  arrangement  is 
not  absolutely  known,  but  tradition  asserts  that 
Akbar  s  throne  occupied  the  centre  of  the  platform 
upon  the  capital  of  the  pillar,  and  that  a  corner 


192  THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

of  the  building  was  assigned  to  each  of  his  four 
Ministers,  who  approached  him  along  these  cause- 
ways. 

Another  very  striking  building  is  the  Panch 
Mahal,  which  rises  in  an  irregular  pyramidal  form 
to  a  very  considerable  height,  in  five  tiers,  each 
storey  being  smaller  than  the  one  below  it.  The 
lower  tier  supports  the  one  above  with  eighty-four 
columns,  while  the  uppermost  consists  merely  of 
a  kiosque  supported  on  four  slender  shafts.  The 
purpose  of  this  building  is  also  somewhat  obscure, 
but  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  pleasure  resort 
for  the  ladies  of  the  palace,  where  they  could  enjoy 
the  air  without  being  seen,  for  the  building,  though 
open  to  the  winds  on  all  sides,  has  carved  stone 
screens  on  each  storey;  these  are  sufficient  to  pro- 
tect the  inmates  from  the  rude  gaze  of  passers-by, 
while  at  the  same  time  allowing  them  to  watch 
what  was  going  forward  in  the  world  around.  One 
of  the  peculiarities  of  this  Panch  Mahal  is  that 
hardly  any  two  of  the  many  pillars  in  its  con- 
struction are  of  the  same  design  or  ornamented 
alike.  Close  by  is  Akbar's  own  private  sleeping 
apartment,  called  the  Khwabghar,  or  "  House  of 
Dreams,"  a  small,  but  elaborately  frescoed  build- 
ing, with  convenient  access  to  all  other  parts  of 
the  palace. 

To  describe  the  other  important  buildings  in 
the  city  would  be  wearisome,  even  if  space  per- 
mitted it.  I  can  merely  attempt  to  refer  to  a  few 
of  them. 

One  of  Akbar's  most  trusted  dependents  was 


THE  PRIME  minister's  HOUSE 


194  THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

Bir  Bal,  originally  a  Hindoo  minstrel,  who  ingra- 
tiated himself  with  the  great  Mogul,  occupied  a 
position  similar  to  that  of  a  poet  laureate  at  his 
Court,  and  eventually  became  his  Prime  Minister. 
For  this  man  his  patron  built  a  magnificent  house, 
which,  together  with  the  Turkish  Sultana's  small 
dwelling,  Fergusson  calls  "  the  richest  and  most 
beautiful,  as  well  as  the  most  characteristic,  of  all 
Akbar's  buildings."  They  are  minutely  carved  from 
top  to  bottom  within  and  without.  Then  there  is 
the  house  of  Miriam,  the  mother  of  the  Emperor 
Jehangir,  a  building  with  curious  frescoes,  in  which 
an  angel  is  depicted  in  style  and  treatment  so  much 
like  those  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  Fra 
Angelico's  pictures  of  the  Annunciation  that  it 
has  given  rise  to  the  erroneous  belief  that  this 
Miriam,  wife  of  Akbar,  was  a  Portuguese  Christian. 

Mohammedans  are  usually  fond  of  birds,  and  it 
is  interesting  to  observe  that  in  many'of  the  chief 
buildings  the  upper  parts  are  pierced  with  small 
arched  recesses  for  the  accommodation  of  pigeons. 
Besides  all  this  there  is  an  elaborate  system  for 
raising  water  and  dispersing  it  to  all  parts  of  the 
palace ;  mysterious  viaducts,  aqueducts,  and  pas- 
sages abound  in  all  directions,  as  well  as  stables 
for  horses  and  camels,  with  the  stone  rings  by 
which  the  animals  were  fastened  still  attached  to 
their  mangers. 

In  one  of  the  stately  courts  of  the  palace  the 
pavement  is  marked  out  somewhat  in  the  fashion 
of  a  gigantic  chess-board;  this  is  the  Pachisi  Court, 
where  the  Emperor  used  to  play  the  game  which 


PANCH    MAHAL  195 

gives  the  court  its  name.  The  game  presents  much 
resemblance  to  chess,  and,  in  this  case,  was  played 
with  living  pieces,  men  and  women  dressed  in 
character.  Of  the  gardens,  which  must  have  been 
very  large,  scanty  traces  remain. 

The  sub-structures  of  the  palace  buildings  are 
massive  and  extensive,  and  are  infested  with  bats 
and  porcupines,  while  panthers  find  covert  among 
the  dense,  scrubby  jungle  which  surrounds  the  city. 
Not  long  before  our  arrival  Mr.  Smith's  children 
had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  panther  which  sprang 
out  of  the  bushes  close  to  them.  Fortunately  it 
was  a  stray  goat,  and  not  the  children,  which  had 
attracted  the  brute,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  dogs 
they  were  able  to  make  good  their  escape. 

Although  to  the  ordinary  observer  Fatehpur 
Sikri  appears  fairly  intact,  a  close  inspection  will 
show  that  much  of  the  fabric  is  tottering  to  a  fall, 
and,  indeed,  some  of  the  buildings  have  actually 
crumbled  into  ruins.  This  is  unfortunately  the  case 
with  many  of  the  architectural  monuments  through- 
out the  Empire,  and  it  is  distressing  to  see  build- 
ings notable  for  their  historic  interest,  as  well  as 
for  their  artistic  beauty,  vanishing  before  our  eyes. 
The  monuments  of  India  have,  in  fact,  passed 
through  many  vicissitudes,  and  have  suffered  much 
from  diverse  causes,  from  the  fanatical  religionist, 
the  ruthless  conqueror,  from  the  well-intentioned 
but  ignorant  restorer,  and  from  the  less  ignorant 
but  too  practical  engineer ;  from  the  natives, 
who  use  them  as  quarries  for  their  own  mean 
buildings ;  from  the  jungle  growth,  which  in  the 


196  THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

course  of  a  few  years  may,  by  insinuating  roots 
and  tendrils,  upheave  massive  masonry  and  tear 
down  well-built  walls;  from  the  monsoon  rains; 
and  last,  but  not  least,  from  the  archaeological  thief, 
who  has  been  permitted  to  carry  off  with  impunity 
countless  treasures  to  enrich  his  own  or  his  nation's 
collection. 

Buddhist  temples  were  destroyed  by  Hindus, 
and  Hindu  buildings  received  the  roughest  hand- 
ling at  the  hand  of  the  Mohammedan.  In  our  own 
time,  treasures  of  art  have  disappeared  on  the  excuse 
of  modern  improvement,  or,  perhaps,  to  make  room 
for  a  railway  station  ;  temples  and  palaces  have 
been  converted  to  utilitarian  purposes,  and  amongst 
other  acts  of  widespread  vandalism  was  the  smash- 
ing up  of  numberless  Pathan  tombs,  including  the 
priceless  encaustic  tiles  with  which  they  were 
adorned,  to  form  ballast  for  200  miles  of  railway 
line. 

Collectors  have  been  permitted  to  pilfer  and  carry 
away  sculpture  and  other  works  of  art.  Notorious 
instances  in  point  are  the  abduction  of  Shah  Jehan's 
bath  at  Agra,  and  of  the  celebrated  Orpheus  panel 
from  the  Delhi  Palace,  and  within  recent  years  there 
have  appeared  in  celebrated  European  museums  a 
series  of  Indian  frescoes  and  a  most  valuable  frieze 
of  encaustic  tiles  stolen  from  buildings  in  the 
peninsula.  For  these  dishonourable  but  enterpris- 
ing acts  the  perpetrators  have  been  decorated  by 
their  sovereign.  In  the  meanwhile,  many  praise- 
worthy attempts  have  been  made  by  individual 
Englishmen  to  arouse  public  feeling  and  to  stimu- 


A   FORTUNATE    ESCAPE  197 

late  an  interest  in  the  historical  monuments  of 
India.  Few  have  done  more  to  this  end  than  James 
Fergusson,  whose  history  of  Indian  architecture — 
the  chief  authority  on  the  subject — has  earned  for 
him  the  gratitude  of  all  lovers  of  history  and  art. 
To  General  Cunningham  is  due  the  preservation 
and  protection  of  many  buildings  of  interest,  and  by 
him,  under  Lord  Canning,  was  inaugurated  the 
first  archaeological  survey  of  Northern  India.  Dr. 
James  Burgess,  his  able  successor,  has  spent  a 
long  and  useful  life  in  prosecuting  the  study  of 
architecture  in  India  as  an  art  or  record  of  history, 
and  his  monumental  works  on  the  Buddhist  period 
have  done  much  to  stimulate  interest  in  and  en- 
courage the  study  of  the  subject. 

In  1 89 1  a  memorial  was  addressed  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  for  India,  signed  by  representatives 
of  all  the  leading  artistic  and  antiquarian  societies 
in  England,  andbyalargenumber  of  influential  and 
artistic  persons,  praying  him  to  take  steps  for  the 
systematic  record  and  preservation  of  all  buildings 
of  interest  in  the  country — for  up  till  that  time  the 
measures  taken  were  at  the  best  intermittent  and 
partial — and  in  1898  Lord  Elgin  once  more  took 
up  the  reorganisation  of  the  Department  of  Archae- 
ology. Thanks  to  Lord  Curzon,  this  department 
has  now  been  set  upon  a  sound  basis  ;  a  trained 
archaeologist  has  been  appointed  to  supervise  the 
operations,  to  initiate  plans  of  repair  or  restoration, 
and  to  prepare  a  record  of  existing  monuments  ; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  these  relics  of  a  bygone 
civilisation — forming  as  they  do  one  of  the  chief 


198  THE  WINDSOR  OF  THE  GREAT  MOGUL 

glories  of  the  land — will  be  preserved  for  the  joy 
of  many  generations  to  come. 

This  being  the  case,  the  country  is  to  be  con- 
gratulated ;  it  was  high  time  that  England  should 
awake  to  the  responsibilities  of  her  trust  in  respect 
to  the  monuments  of  which  the  nation  should  be 
proud,  and  which  as  yet  it  has  taken  no  adequate 
steps  to  preserve. 


ON   THE  ROAD  TO  FATEHPIJR 


CHAPTER  X 
GWALIOR:  SINDHIA'S    CAPITAL 

We  had  heard  so  much  about  Gwalior  Fort,  the 
centre  of  a  rich  native  State,  that  we  determined  to 
make  a  ddtour  from  Agra  to  see  it  for  ourselves ; 
and  when  one  day,  early  in  February,  we  arrived  in 
the  moonlight,  we  found  it  was  indeed  a  wonderful 
place. 

A  huge  rock  of  sandstone,  capped  with  basalt, 
one-and-a-half  miles  long, rises  sternly  and  majesti- 
cally, like  a  wall,  out  of  the  plain,  and  is  crowned 
with  a  fantastic  line  of  palaces  and  temples. 

The  authentic  history  of  the  Fort  goes  back  to 
the  second  century  a.d.,  when  it  was  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Toramana,  who  ruled  over  the  country  be- 
tween the  Jumna  and  the  Nerbudda;  but  tradition 
places  the  founding  of  the  city  many  centuries 
before  Christ.  No  doubt,  the  rock-dwelling  anchor- 
ites and  yogis  who  have  always  abounded  in  Hindu 
lands  as  they  do  in  Tibet  now,  had  their  dwellings 
in  the  caves  here  from  the  very  earliest  days,  be- 
fore Elijah  fled  to  the  wilderness  to  serve  God  in 
solitude  or  Jacob  reared  his  lath  at  Bethel. 

The  Kachawa  dynasty  of  eighty-four  Rajput 
princes  held  the  fortress  till  967,  and  a  second 


200  GWALIOR 

line  of  nine  Hindu  princes  then  reigned  here  for 
200  years,  until  Kutub-ud-din,  of  Delhi  fame, 
wrested  it  from  them  for  his  Mohammedan 
masters,  and  for  another  200  years  the  Kings  of 
Delhi  used  Gwalior  as  a  state  prison.  So  also  did 
the  Mogul  Emperors,  confining  here  possible 
aspirants  to  the  throne,  whom  they  compelled  to 
drink  an  infusion  of  opium,  which  acted  as  a  slow 
poison.  In  the  early  middle  ages,  another  Hindu 
dynasty,  the  Touar  Rajpoots,  were  again  in  posses- 
sion of  Gwalior,  and  they  are  the  princes  who  have 
left  the  deepest  mark  on  the  rock-fortress  in  the 
beautiful  palaces  of  Man  Sing,  and  the  very  re- 
markable series  of  Jain  rock-carvings,  on  the  west 
and  south-east  faces  of  the  cliffs.  At  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Eighth  the  Moguls  came  back,  and,  on 
the  dismemberment  of  their  empire,  Gwalior  was 
seized  first  by  the  Jat  Rana  of  Gohad  and  then  by 
the  great  Mahratta  chiefs  of  the  house  of  Sindhia, 
who  are  descended  from  an  official  of  the  Peshwa's 
court  at  Poona.  With  the  exception  of  several 
intervals  during  which  it  was  in  our  hands,  they 
have  been  in  possession  of  it  ever  since. 

During  the  Mutiny,  although  Sindhia  and  his 
minister,  Sir  Dinkar  Rao,  remained  loyal  with 
10,000  men,  a  contingent  mutinied,  and  defeated 
Sindhia's  troops  near  Morar.  He  took  refuge  in 
Agra,  and  it  was  left  to  Sir  Hugh  Rose  and 
Lord  Napier  of  Magdala  to  regain  the  fortress. 
This  they  did  after  five  days'  desperate  fighting 
against  that  interesting  Amazon,  the  Rani  of 
Jhansi,   who,  in   counsel   and   on   the  field  was 


LASHKAR  20I 

the  soul  of  the  mutineers,  and  perished  in  action, 
fighting  gallantly  in  male  attire  at  the  head  of  her 
troops.  The  Maharaja  Sindhia  was  then  re- 
established in  his  fortress-palace,  and  granted  an 
increase  of  territory  and  permission  to  enlarge  his 
army. 

A  friend  told  me  a  curious  story  about  this 
Sindhia,  illustrating  the  peculiar  love  of  the  Hindu 
for  hoarding  money.  When  he  regained  his  posses- 
sions there  was  a  vast  population  in  a  half  starving 
condition,  in  the  State  of  Gwalior  ;  and  the  British 
Government  gave  the  Maharaja  to  understand 
that  he  must  institute  public  works  to  give  them 
employment.  This  he  readily  consented  to  do  if 
the  British  Government  advanced  the  funds  with 
which  to  pay  them.  Accordingly  ;^5oo,ooo  was 
sent  him  for  the  purpose.  The  public  works  were 
begun  and  carried  through,  the  Maharaja  mean- 
while punctually  paying  interest  on  the  loan. 
When  he  died,  and  the  pits  in  the  Fort  where  he 
kept  his  treasure  were  examined,  there  was  the 
;^5oo,ooo  still  in  the  same  original  bags  in  which 
it  had  been  sent  up  to  him — never  touched.  He 
hadincurred  the  cost  of  the  works,  with  the  interest, 
for  the  pleasure  of  knowing  that  he  had  half  a 
million  of  English  gold  in  his  cellars. 

The  modern  town  or  Lashkar,'^'  where  the  Court 
lives,  stands  on  the  site  of  the  Mahratta  camp  ;  but 
the  railway  station  and  the  old  cityof  Gwalior  are  on 
the  north-east,  between  the  foot  of  the  rock  and  the 
river.  Near  this  quarter,  the  present  Maharaja,  Sir 
Madho  Rao  Sindhia,  has  a  rest  house,  or  Musafir 

*  See  note  p.  215.  2  c 


202  GWALIOR 

Khana,  in  which  the  Resident  at  Gwalior  kindly 
arranged  that  we  should  put  up. 

It  was  an  interesting  experience  to  find,  on  arriv- 
ing, ahuge  elephant  waiting  in  themoonlightoutside 
the  Station,  amongst  the  ekkas  and  ticcag  harries. 
He  was  kindly  placed  at  our  disposal  by  the  Maha- 
raja, and  was  a  splendid  fellow,  about  ten  to  twelve 
feet  high  in  his  stockings,  and  wearingsilverbangles 
round  his  tusks.  Ten  minutes  took  us  to  the  Musa- 
fir  Khana,  a  large  and  new  stone  building ;  it  was 
very  comfortable,  with  good  furniture  and  a  cook 
of  varied  accomplishments,  who  played  to  us,  after 
dinner,  on  a  sitar,  resembling  a  very  large  mando- 
line. He  played  with  a  piece  of  wire  bent  into  a 
triangular  shape,  an  endless,  featureless  tune, 
called  The  Snakecharmer's  Song  ;  after  enduring 
it  for  nearly  half  an  hour  we  fled  to  bed.  It  might 
have  sounded  well  out  of  doors  in  the  moonlight 
at  a  little  distance,  but  at  such  close  quarters  it 
nearly  drove  us  wild. 

When  I  looked  out  of  my  window,  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  before  sunrise  next  morning,  the  great  rock  of 
Gwalior,  rising  from  the  plain  like  the  hulk  of  a 
gigantic  battle-ship,  looked  very  fine,  as  it  was  just 
being  touched  by  the  rosy  finger  of  dawn,  its  crown- 
ing walls,  palaces,  and  the  irregularities  of  its  preci- 
pitous sides  articulated  by  the  rays  of  the  rising 
sun.  It  was  overspread  with  a  deep  red  flush  from 
the  glowing  Eastern  sky,  and  though  the  base  be- 
neath was  still  in  a  gloomy  obscurity  of  shadow,the 
broad  features  of  the  landscape,  the  bare  ground, 
thetrees,andthe  partly  ruined  tombs  were  distinctly 


GWALIOR  FORT  BEFORE 
SUNRISE 

"The  great  rock  of  Gwalior,  rising  from  the  plain 
like  the  hulk  of  a  gigantic  battle-ship,  looked  very  fine 
when  I  saw  it  from  mj'  window,  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
before  sunrise;  its  crowning  walls,  palaces,  and  the 
irregularities  of  its  precipitous  sides  were  just  being 
touched  by  the  dawn.  It  was  overspread  with  a  deep 
red  flush  from  the  glowing  Eastern  sky,  and  though 
the  base  beneath  was  still  in  shadow,  the  broad 
features  of  the  landscape,  the  bare  ground,  the  trees, 
and  the  partly  ruined  tombs  were  distinctly  visible  in 
the  clear  still  air.  In  the  foreground  a  square  tomb 
with  a  Pathan  dome  gave  distance  to  the  background, 
and  between  me  and  it,  occasional  figures  noiselessly 


A   POLITICAL   SAINT  203 

visible  in  the  clear  still  air.  In  the  foreground  was 
a  square  tomb  with  a  Pathan  dome,  which  gave 
distance  to  the  background,  and  between  me  and 
it  occasional  figures  noiselessly  passed.  I  lost  no 
time  in  getting  out  my  sketch-book  and  attempting 
to  make  a  record  of  the  scene,  which  to  me  pos- 
sessed an  unusual  charm,  and  filled  me  with  an 
impatient  desire  to  see  more  of  this  historic  place, 
and  to  become  more  closely  acquainted  with  the 
glittering  and  fantastic  buildings  which  marked 
the  sky-line. 

At  a  quarter  to  nine  we  set  off  to  explore  the 
Fort  and  its  palaces  and  temples,  stopping  on 
our  way  to  see  the  splendid  tomb  of  Muhamad 
Ghaus,  a  holy  man,  but  wily,  "  saint  and  poisoner 
fed  with  bribes,  deep  versed  in  every  trait'rous 
plan,"  who  was  the  author  of  the  stratagem  by 
which  Akbar  got  possession  of  Gwalior.  This  is 
one  of  the  best  specimens  of  early  Mohammedan 
architecture  of  the  time,  and  consists  of  a  square 
building  with  a  large  Pathan  dome  and  angle 
towers,  standing  on  a  square  platform  with  a 
pavilion  in  the  centre  of  each  side.  The  centre  of 
the  building  is  occupied  by  the  cenotaph  :  it  is 
surrounded  by  a  lofty  verandah,  enclosed  with 
screens  of  the  most  delicate  tracery,  very  much  like 
those  at  Fatehpur  Sikri,  but,  like  the  rest  of  the 
neglected  building,  terribly  choked  with  white- 
wash. 

The  main  road,  which  ascends  from  the  old  town 
at  the  north-east  of  the  rock  to  the  top  of  the  Fort 
300  feet  above,  is  very  steep.     Arrangements  had 


204  GWALIOR 

been  made  beforehand,  and  we  found  the  Mahara- 
ja's elephant,  brightly  arrayed  in  a  red  and  yellow 
howdah  cloth,  waiting  outside  the  lowest  gate, 
ready  to  take  us  up  and  convey  us  about  the  Fort. 
On  our  arrival  the  great  beast  knelt  down,  and  up 


ONE  OF   THE  MAHARAJA  S   ELEPHANTS 

we  got ;  then,  after  passing  through  the  decaying 
old  town  with  its  crowded  mass  of  small  flat-roofed 
stone  houses,  he  proceeded  to  shuffle  up  the  hill 
with  a  kind  of  two  forward  and  one  back  motion. 
Among  trees  on  our  right  gleamed  the  blue  tiles 
of  the  stately  Gujari  Palace  which  Man  Sing 
built  for  his  queen  close  under  the  rock.  It  is  an 
immensely  steep,  hot  climb  up  to  the  top  of  the 


MAN    SING    PALACE  205 

rock  on  which  stands  the  Fort  and  palaces  ;  but  the 
elephant  took  us  up  leisurely,  under  the  guidance 
of  a  good-looking  Sikh  of  the  Maharaja's  troops, 
and  a  policeman  and  two  mahouts  ;  and  we  had 
time  to  admire  the  little  Jain  and  Buddhist  carv- 
ings on  the  rock,  and  the  view,  constantly  widening 
out  across  the  plain,  as  we  went  along,  under  six 
grand  gateways  and  past  many  small  temples. 
There  was  one  temple,  about  fourteen  feet  high, 
pinnacles  and  all,  carved  out  of  one  stone  most 
elaborately,  about  the  year  800,  in  the  days  when 
our  forefathers  were  more  concerned  with  feeding 
their  pigs  on  acorns  than  architecture.  Further 
on,  near  the  third  or  fourth  gate,  was  a  large  tank 
with  a  Hindu  temple. 

Little  paths  led  off  up  the  face  of  the  rock  per- 
petually to  groups  of  Jain  statues,  carvings  of 
Mahadeo  and  Parbati,  or  Vishnu  in  the  Boar  in- 
carnation ;  but  we  could  not,  of  course,  do  more 
than  give  them  a  glance,  as  our  elephant  carried  us 
up  the  narrow  road,  and  then  under  the  walls  of 
the  five  great  palaces,  of  which  the  two  lower 
storeys  are  carved  in  the  rock  that  overhangs  the 
road. 

We  were  nearly  at  the  top  when  we  came  under 
the  splendid  Man  Sing  Palace,  which,  like  the 
others,  faces  outwards  towards  the  plain  (E.).  On 
this  side  it  is  buttressed  by  six  round  towers, 
with  many  balconies  and  pilasters.  They  are 
crowned  with  copper-gilt  domes  and  ornamented 
in  bands — as  is  the  whole  building — with  sculp- 
ture, and  blue  and  yellow  glazed  tiles  in  bold 


2o6  GWALIOR 

conventional  patterns,  which  have  a  very  peculiar 
and  original  effect.  It  is  palace  and  rampart  in  one, 
and  as  it  overhangs  the  side  of  the  cliff  is  certainly 
the  most  originally  decorated  house  I  ever  saw. 
There  is  a  broad  ribbon  of  blue  along  the  facade 
with  a  bright  yellow  row  of  Brahma's  geese  upon 
it,  and  below  is  another  dado  of  blue,  about  five  or 
six  feet  high,  with  conventional  vivid  green  mango 
trees  growing  in  panels.  Quite  above,  against  the 
sky,  the  walls  are  pierced  by  latticed  screens 
with  great  elephants  set  into  them,  picked  out 
with  blue.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  sky,  showing  through  the 
pierced  work,  and  the  bits  of  blue  pottery  set  into 
the  stone  elephant.  Some  of  the  other  tiles  repre- 
sent candelabras,  elephants,  or  peacocks  in  blue, 
rose  colour,  green  and  gold  ;  and  when  the  corner 
under  the  elephant  gate  is  turned,  the  great  win- 
dowless  wall  overhanging  the  narrow  street  is  found 
to  be  almost  completely  hidden  under  this  blaze  of 
brilliant  but  delicate  colour.  Even  the  columns 
encircling  the  lower  storeys  had  a  blue  ribbon  of 
tile  work  twined  round  them. 

This  last  gateway,  the  Hathiya  Paur,  had 
brought  us  to  the  summit  of  the  cliff  and  the 
entrance  to  the  Fort,  where  a  soldier  of  the  Maha- 
raja's army  in  the  old  red  tunic  of  a  cast-off  British 
uniform,  a  red  turban  and  slippers,  was  on  sentry 
duty.  The  elephant  here  went  down  on  his  knees, 
and  we  got  off  to  see  the  interior  of  the  palace  and 
make  a  sketch. 

It  was  usually  the  Mohammedan  buildings  in 


JOHAR   SACRIFICE  207 

India  which  took  my  fancy  for  sketching  purposes. 
The  buildings  of  an  earlier  period,  and  the  Hindu 
architecture  especially,  seemed  too  grotesque  and 
clumsy,  and  in  many  cases  too  profuse  in  orna- 
ment, for  the  purpose ;  but  the  Rajput  Man 
Sing  Palace  is  an  exceptional  building,  and,  partly 
from  its  position  growing  out  of  the  top  of  the  rock 
and  dominating  the  approach  to  the  Fort,  struck 
me  as  being  well  suited  to  artistic  treatment.  I 
made  a  sketch,  not  of  the  main  facade  looking 
down  upon  the  plain,  but  of  this  shorter  face 
which  turns  inwards  at  the  angle  where  one  of  the 
many  gateways  spans  the  ascending  road.  Semi- 
circular bastions,  crowned  by  cupolas,  flank,  at  in- 
tervals, the  palace  walls,  and  along  them  run  the 
horizontal  bands  of  blue  and  yellow,  and  the 
sculptured  arches.  Through  the  gateway  came  a 
stately  elephant,  and  beyond  I  could  just  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  plain  far  below. 

Gwalior  Palace  is  connected  with  many  tragic 
stories.  When  the  Moslems  first  stormed  Gwalior 
the  Rajpoots,  besieged  without  hope  of  relief,  in 
the  last  effort  of  despair  put  all  their  womenkind 
to  death,  rather  than  allow  them  to  fall  into  the 
enemy's  hands,  and  then,  drunk  with  blood  and 
opium,  the  warriors,  clad  in  saffron  robes,  rushed 
forth  to  inevitable  destruction  in  a  last  desperate 
encounter.  This  wholesale  annihilation  was  known 
as  the  solemn  sacrifice,  "  Johar." 

The  palace  of  the  Kings  of  Gwalior  covers  a 
great  part  of  the  east  side  of  the  plateau,  and  was 
the   work   of    more   than   one   of    the    different 


2o8  GWALIOR 

dynasties  which  ruled  here.  Each  dynasty  added 
to  it,  and  the  Moguls  enlarged  it  considerably.  The 
different  storeys,  with  their  rows  of  square  pillars, 
overlook  large  paved  courtyards  of  the  eleventh 
century.  The  carving  looks  better  in  this  nice 
yellow  sandstone  than  in  Akbar's  red,  and  I  fancy 
too  this  is  rather  higher  taste,  not  so  finicking,  and 
with  a  better  sense  of  proportion. 

The  first  of  these  halls,  we  were  told  by  our 
guide,  had  been  a  temple.  Its  walls  are  covered 
with  a  diaper  pattern  in  low  relief,  and  here  and 
there  small  square  holes  open  from  it  into  a 
narrow  passage  which  surrounds  it  on  three  sides. 
The  side  facing  the  court  is  open,  broken  by 
sculptured  pillars,  above  which  are  elaborate  corbels 
supporting  stone  eaves.  The  corbels  over  the 
second  hall  represent  peacocks  with  their  tails 
twisted  upwards.  Most  of  the  rooms  were  low  and 
with  slabbed  ceilings.  Fergusson  says  of  this 
palace  that  it  is  the  most  remarkable  and  interest- 
ing example  of  an  early  Hindu  palace  in  India. 
We  went  into  two  other  palaces — the  Vikram 
Palace,  where  little  remains  besides  a  square  hall 
massively  built,  with  flat-groined  roof,  and  the 
Karam  Palace,  which  does  not  contain  much  of 
interest.  The  small  rooms  are  lined  with  stucco, 
with  vestiges  of  fresco  decoration,  as  is  also  the 
Hammam  beneath,  where  in  the  domes  remain 
some  delicate  designs  in  plaster  work. 

Then  we  mounted  our  elephant  again,  and  the 
big  beast  flopped  leisurely  along  the  ridge  to  the 
south.    Unfortunately,  when  the  British  occupied 


THE  MAN  SING  PALACE, 
GWALIOR 

' '  An  exceptional  building,  growing  out  of  the  top  of 
the  rock  and  dominating  the  approach  to  the  Fort. 
Semicircular  bastions  crowned  by  cupolas  flank,  at 
intervals,  the  palace  walls,  and  along  them  run  hori- 
zontal bands  of  blue  and  yellow  faience,  and  sculptured 
arches.  It  is  palace  and  rampart  in  one,  and  is  cer- 
tainly the  most  originally  decorated  house  I  ever  saw. 
There  is  a  broad  ribbon  cf  blue  along  the  facade,  with 
a  bright  yellow  row  of  Brahma's  geese  upon  it,  and 
below  is  another  band  of  blue,  about  five  or  six  feet 
high,  with  conventional  vivid  green  mango  trees, 
growing  in  panels.  Through  the  gateway  came  a 
stately  elephant,  and  beyond  I  could  just  get  a  glimpse 
of  the  plain  far  below." 


TEMPLES  209 

the  Fort  after  the  Mutiny,  we  built  a  great  block 
of  barracks  and  "  cleared  away  a  lot  of  antiquarian 
rubbish  to  make  a  parade  ground."  M.  Rousselet, 
the  French  traveller,  who  was  here  in  1864  and  1867, 
mentions  temples  and  palaces  which  were  being 
pulled  down  and  blown  up  by  us  at  his  first  visit, 
and  had  completely  disappeared  when  he  came 
again.  Baber  and  the  Mohammedans  mutilated 
the  sculptures  from  religious  motives,  but  it  was 
left  to  us  to  sweep  completely  away  buildings  of 
unique  interest.  Parts  of  the  great  and  small 
Sas  Bahu  temples,  however,  remain ;  they  are 
massive  square  buildings,  of  about  1090  a.d.,  with 
an  entrance  on  each  side,  and  are  raised  on  plat- 
forms and  profusely  covered  with  ornament.  They 
formed  probably  the  porches  to  temple  enclosures. 
Round  the  base  of  many  of  the  pillars  there  are 
sculptured  groups  of  elephants  and  other  animals 
and  dancing  figures.  It  does  not  seem  easy  to 
determine  whether  these  temples,  probably  of  Jain 
origin,  were  originally  dedicated  to  one  of  the  Jain 
Tirthankers  or  to  some  Hindu  god.  Some  of  the 
bas-reliefs  have  subjects  clearly  connected  with 
Vishnu  or  Shiva  worship. 

But  one  of  the  oldest  and  the  strangest  buildings 
is  the  Teli  Ka  Mandir,  or  Oilman's  Temple  ;  it  is 
more  massive  than  either  of  the  others  and  very 
much  more  lofty,  rising  to  a  height  of  about  eighty 
feet,  where  it  culminates  in  a  solid  waggon  roof. 
The  doorway,  which  projects  on  the  east  side,  was 
probably  crowned  at  a  slightly  lower  level  by  a 
similar  roof.    The  whole  building  is  covered  with 


2IO  GWALIOR 

sculpture  in  deep  relief.  The  interior  consists  of 
one  comparatively  small  chamber,  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  building.  It  dates  from  the  tenth 
century,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  dedicated 
originally  to  Vishnu,  but  afterwards  adapted  to 


THE   URWAHI   VALLEY 


Shiva  worship.  There  is  a  collection  of  fragments, 
made  by  Major  Keith,  set  up  round  the  base. 

From  the  Teli  Ka  Mandir  we  made  our  way,  by  a 
road  on  the  west  side  of  the  ridge,  down  into  the 
rocky  Urwahi  valley,  to  see  a  marvellous  series  of 
Jain  sculptures;  gigantic  figures  cut  out  of  the  side 
of  the  rock,  which  is  almost  perpendicular.  We  felt 
as  though  suddenly  transported  to  Egypt  and 
amongst  the  Sphinxes.  A  deep  and  narrow  gorge 


JAIN   TIRTHANKERS  211 

here  splits  the  steep  rock  in  two  for  some  distance. 
When  M.  Rousselet  first  visited  Gwalior  in  1864, 
he  approached  them  from  below,  and  was  much 
impressed  by  the  grand  mysterious  aspect  of  the 
dark  ravine, where  these  colossal  figures,  ranged  the 
whole  length  of  the  chasm,  were  dimly  discernible 
amongst  the  tangled  creepers.  But  in  1867 he  found 
the  British  blasting  a  new  road  from  the  fortress, 
down  the  ravine.  This  road,  down  which  we  came, 
has  considerably  lessened  the  impressiveness  of  the 
scene,  and  has  also  destroyed  and  hidden  some  of 
the  sculptures. 

For  a  distance  of  eight  or  ten  miles,  the  whole 
face  of  the  precipitous  rock  of  the  Fort  is  honey- 
combed with  caves,  temples,  cells  and  niches,  con- 
taining figures  of  the  twenty-four  Tirthankers,  the 
Jain  holy  men,  pontiffs  or  deified  saints  :  the 
group  in  this  ravine — known  as  the  Urwahi 
group — appears  to  be  the  most  remarkable.  The 
caves  were,  no  doubt,  the  abode  of  anchorites, 
and  the  figures  have  been  carved  by  the  devout  of 
probably  many  generations  ;  for  though  the  greater 
number  appear  to  have  been  carved  during  a  period 
in  the  latter  middle  ages,  when  the  Rajpoot  chiefs 
had  again  for  a  time  possession  of  Gwalior 
(1225-54),  yet  some  have  been  found  with  dates  of 
the  second  century. 

The  Jain  religion  flourished  in  India  before 
Buddhism  ;  and  Mahavira,  the  last  of  the  line  of 
Tirthankers,  is  believed  to  have  been  Sakya  Muni's 
guru  or  teacher.  Early  Buddhist  art  contains  many 
of  the  same  symbols  and  emblems  that  are  met 


212  GWALIOR 

with  in  Jain  art — the  serpent,  the  sacred  tree,  the 
svastika — and  the  familiar  cross-legged  repre- 
sentation of  Buddha  is  almost  indistinguishable 
from  that  of  some  of  the  Tirthankers. 

After  Buddhism  in  India  perished  in  the  face  of 
the  Brahmanic  revival  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
centuries  A.D.,  the  Jains  recovered  their  ancientposi- 
tion  to  a  great  extent  and  became  the  great  temple 
builders  of  India.  They  seem,  more  than  any  other 
sect,  to  have  been  imbued  with  the  idea  that  to 
build  a  temple,  or  carve  a  sacred  figure,  was  an  act  of 
religious  value  in  itself,  quite  irrespective  of  any 
idea  of  worship  being  offered  in  the  temple.  To 
build  or  restore  the  temple  was  to  them  an  act  of 
prayer,  which  would  enable  the  builder  to  acquire 
merit  and  would  bring  down  on  him  present  and 
future  rewards.  They  seem  often  to  have  aimed  at 
simply  repeating  the  figures  of  their  twenty-four 
Tirthankers,  usually  within  a  cell  or  temple,  but 
here  there  is  more  variety  in  the  size  and  attitude 
than  in  some  of  their  sacred  places.  These  statues 
are  of  all  sizes,  from  minute  foot-high  cross-legged 
figures  tocolossal  upright  monoliths  of  nearly  sixty 
feet.  They  represent  most  of  the  line  of  pontiffs 
from  Adinath,  the  legendary  founder  of  their  faith, 
to  the  twenty-fourth  and  last  Mahavira,  and  also 
scenes  representing  his  birth  and  parents.  Each 
Tirthanker  has  a  distinguishing  emblem  near  the 
foot  of  the  statue.  The  statue  of  Parasnath  is 
the  largest.  The  figures  either  stand  stiffly,  with 
their  arms  hanging  by  their  side  or  are  seated  in 
the  familiar  Buddha  attitude.    They  are  totally 


LASHKAR  213 

wanting  in  movement  and  rather  out  of  proportion, 
with  naked  bodies,  and  have  enormous  ears  of 
which  the  lobes  rest  on  their  shoulders.  The  Em- 
peror Baber  thought  them  the  only  blot  onGwalior, 
that  "  extremely  pleasant  place,"  and  he  records  in 
his  diary  that  he  ordered  them  to  be  destroyed. 
They  were,  however,  merely  mutilated,  and  have  to 
some  extent  been  restored  by  later  Jain  devotees. 
Most  of  them  have  mitres,  surmounted  with  ser- 
pents or  a  threefold  branch  of  the  sacred  tree,  but 
others  have  merely  the  tightly  curling  hair  so  often 
seen  on  figures  of  Buddha.  I  believe  they  are 
unique  in  Northern  India,  and  much  regretted  that 
we  had  not  more  time  to  spend  on  examining  them. 

We  went  down  later,  into  the  Lashkar,  where 
as  usual  there  was  constant  pleasure  to  be  got  out 
of  watching  the  people,  and  their  ways,  in  the 
bazaars  ;  we  spent  some  time,  in  the  afternoon, 
bargaining  for  bits  of  old  brass  work  in  the  copper 
bazaar  of  the  new  town  which  has  sprung  up  round 
the  Maharaja  Sindhia's  Palace.  But  we  regretted 
we  could  not  speak  the  language  a  little  ;  for  though 
the  Portuguese  '*  boy  "  was  very  good  at  interpret- 
ing, he  always  seemed  to  rub  the  people  up  the 
wrong  way,  and  that  put  an  end  to  the  smiling  pro- 
testations and  amusing  humbug  that  forms  more 
than  half  the  pleasure  of  such  transactions,  and, 
though  I  daresay  we  got  the  things  cheaper,  we  did 
not  get  to  know  the  people  so  well. 

The  Maharaja  was  quite  young,  but  he  man- 
aged to  keep  a  good  deal  of  stir  alive  in  the  town 
round  his  palace.  He  had  been  married  the  month 


214  GWALIOR 

before,  and  all  the  officials  of  the  North- West  were 
invited  to  the  festas  given  to  celebrate  the  event. 
His  wife,  I  am  told,  was  very  fair  and  pretty  and 
very  bright,  in  spite  of  her  secluded  harim  life  :  she 
is  however  allowed  more  liberty  than  many  purdah 
ladies.  She  is  said  to  wear  her  sari  in  a  peculiar 
way,  tight  round  the  legs  with  a  long  tail  hanging 
out  at  the  back.  Parts  of  the  town  were  still  gay 
with  wedding  decorations  —  gaudy  triumphal 
arches  of  looking-glass  and  coloured  paper.  There 
were  elephants  and  palanquins  about  everywhere, 
and  I  met  a  cavalcade  of  Sindhia's  guests  dashing 
down  to  catch  the  train.  First,  a  litter  covered  with 
bright  stuffs  containing,  I  imagine,  the  ladies  of  the 
party,then  a  barouche  with  fine  horses,  and,  stolidly 
sitting  in  the  middle,  one  stout  gentleman  in  violet, 
gold-embroidered  satin,  wearing  the  red  turban  of 
the  peculiar  three-cornered  Mahratta  shape  ;  an 
escort  of  horsemen  armed  with  swords,  and  a  train 
of  syces  followed,  running  after  the  carriage.  I 
met  several  gorgeously  attired  gentlemen  driving 
themselves,  or  being  carried  in  palanquins,  with 
running  footmen  armed  with  coloured  staves  or 
spears,  clearing  the  way  before  them. 

The  native  court  appears  to  bring  prosperity,  for 
there  seemed  to  be  a  great  many  more  well-to-do, 
well-dressed  people  here  than  in  the  British  towns, 
and  we  were  continually  seeing  ekkas,  with  long 
red  or  yellow  curtains,  bearing  veiled  women  in 
really  beautiful  silk  saris  :  and  the  people  seemed 
to  be  covered  with  more  than  the  usual  amount  of 
silver  and  gold  ornaments.  But  the  police  arrange- 


FLYING    FOXES  215 

ments  appear  to  leave  something  to  be  desired,  for 
the  authorities  thought  it  necessary  to  provide  me 
with  an  armed  escort  when  I  went  out  to  sketch  ; 
and  the  night  of  our  arrival  a  wealthy  Hindu,  with 
an  escort  of  two  sepoys,  coming  from  the  train, 
was  set  upon  by  eight  men  armed  with  sticks,  just 
outsideourrest-house.  The  sepoys  at  lastbeat  them 
off,  whilst  the  Hindu  hid  his  head  in  the  ditch. 

I  went  out  for  a  short  walk  about  dusk,  and  en- 
countered a  giant  elephant,  bowling  along  from  the 
station  with  two  very  smart  Hindus  on  his  back  ; 
attached  to  either  side  of  his  bright  howdah-cloth 
were  bells  of  considerable  size.  They  swing  side- 
ways as  the  beast  walks,  and  ringing  in  succession 
sound  rather  well. 

Just  then  a  flight  of  some  hundreds  of  great  bats 
or  flying  foxes — four  feet  across  the  wing  at  least — 
like  a  flight  of  rooks,  came  flying  heavily  over  my 
head  ;  they  were  coming  from  the  neighbouring 
trees,  where  they  hang  during  the  day,  on  the  way 
to  their  hunting-ground  in  the  fruit  gardens.  It 
was  a  curious  sight.  Next  morning  we  got  up  by 
candlelight  and  left  for  the  station  at  five  o'clock. 
Luckily  it  had  grown  much  warmer  the  last  three 
or  four  days,  so  it  was  not  as  trying  as  it  might 
have  been. 

Note. — See  p.  201.  Lashkar  is  the  term  originally  applied  to 
an  army,  and  then,  in  abbreviation  of  Lashkar-gah,  to  a  camp  or 
place  occupied  by  an  army.  It  then  came  to  be  applied  to  towns, 
such  as  Agra  and  especially  Delhi,  which  in  Mogul  times  were  to 
a  great  extent  mere  camps  occupied  by  the  followers  of  the  Sultan. 
In  the  case  of  Gwalior  the  term  has  been  retained,  although  the 
camp  has  become  stereotyped  into  a  permanent  city. 


NTRY   ROUND 

ELHI 

Miles 


CHAPTER  XI 
DELHI,  THE  ANCIENT  CAPITAL 

My  first  impressions  of  Delhi  did  not  come  up  to 
the  picture  I  had  formed  in  my  mind  of  the  great 
capital  of  ancient  India.  I  was  certainly  disap- 
pointed. I  suppose  this  may — to  a  great  extent — 
be  accounted  for  by  our  having  seen  Agra  before- 
hand, as  Agra  is  on  short  acquaintance  decidedly 
the  more  interesting  of  the  two,  although  small  in 
comparison  with  the  invertebrate  Delhi. 

Delhi  lies  on  the  direct  road,  from  the  passes  of 
the  Hindu  Kush,  to  the  very  heart  of  India,  and 
there  is  hardly  a  conqueror  or  a  great  man  in 
Indian  history  who  has  not  had  some  connection 
with  it ;  consequently,  as  Indian  rulers  have  an 
inveterate  habit  of  building  to  themselves  fresh 
abodes,  city  after  city  has  arisen,  flourished  and 
been  swept  away  on  this  plain.  There  are  here  the 
remains  of  nine  successive  cities,  and  the  Delhi  of 
the  ancients  spread  away  eleven  miles  to  the 
southward,  and  covered  about  forty-five  square 
miles.  It  is  not  possible,  therefore,  to  focus  the 
whole  in  one  general  survey.  Every  one  is,  more- 
over, unconsciously  much  influenced  by  the  con- 
ditions under  which  he  first  comes  into  contact 


2i8  DELHI 

with  a  new  place  or  idea ;  and  certainly  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  we  found  ourselves  on 
arriving  at  Delhi  were  not  conducive  to  the  most 
favourable  impressions.  The  day  we  arrived 
(February  20)  was  cloudy  ; — the  first  dull  day  we 
had  had  since  arriving  in  India — a  high  wind  was 
blowing,  and  the  dust,  which  Bernier  found  intol- 
erable in  1670,  was  whirling  about  in  all  direc- 
tions, transforming  everything  to  its  own  colour, 
and  making  everything  abominably  gritty.  The 
bheestie  or  water-carrier  sluicing  the  dry  streets, 
with  water  from  his  goatskin  bag,  made  no  im- 
pression on  the  dust :  it  entered  our  windows  and 
covered  the  tables  and  chairs,  even  in  the  unusually 
high  first  storey  over  the  station  where  we  had 
taken  up  our  quarters.  These  rooms,  furnished  by 
Kellner  (the  Spiers  and  Pond  of  India)  for 
travellers,  were  very  fairly  comfortable,  though  we 
had  to  dine  below  in  the  station  restaurant,  and  I 
believe  that  with  all  drawbacks  and  shortcomings 
it  was  a  much  better  place  than  any  Delhi  hotel. 
Certainly,  we  were  better  ofi"  than  Baron  Hubner, 
who  stayed  in  Delhi  in  1884  and  was  obliged  to  put 
up  with  a  dungeon-like  room  in  a  native  hotel,  ill 
lighted,  damp,  and  feverish.  We  were  perhaps  also 
fortunate,  had  we  realised  it,  in  being  bothered  by 
wind  and  dust  rather  than  by  flies  :  at  times  I  be- 
lieve they  are  a  perfect  pest  in  Delhi,  and  go  far 
to  make  life  a  burden. 

The  modern  city — more  correctly  called  Shah 
Jehanabad — was  founded  by  that  notable  and 
magnificent  builder,  Shah  Jehan,  in  1638,  when  he 


THE    SIEGE  219 

left  Agra,  it  was  said,  in  search  of  a  more  temperate 
climate.  He  built  this  new  capital  with  materials 
taken,  to  a  great  extent,  from  the  partly  deserted 
cities  of  Feroz  Shah  Tuglak  and  Sher  Shah.  It 
stands  on  a  low  rocky  sandstone  range,  by  the  right 
bank  of  the  Jumna,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  solid 
stonewall  of  considerable  height,  on  all  sides  except 
that  abutting  on  the  river.  From  the  time  the  snow 
begins  to  melt  on  the  higher  hills  till  after  the 
rainy  season  is  at  an  end,  the  Jumna  washes  the 
walls  and  its  stream  is  unfordable.  This  wall,  after 
Lord  Lake  took  possession  of  the  town  in  1803, 
was  modernised  and  considerably  strengthened  by. 
the  English  more  than  once,*  to  their  own  hurt,  as 
was  proved  by  the  siege  of  1857.  The  native 
troops  here,  mutinied  May  1 1,  immediately  after 
the  outbreak  at  Meerut.  The  English  authority 
collapsed  with  amazing  rapidity,  and  though  troops 
were  sent  from  Amballa  to  restore  order,  the 
mutineers  held  the  town  against  Sir  Harry  Bar- 
nard and  General  Archdale  Wilson  from  June  8 
till  September  21,  in  spite  of  a  perseverance, 
splendid  stolid  endurance,  pluck  and  high  courage 
on  the  part  of  our  troops,  which  Lord  Roberts 
says  were  quite  beyond  praise.  We  lost  more  men 
before  Delhi  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  Mutiny 
combined. 

On  the  evening  of  our  arrival  we  tried  to  get  some 
general  idea  of  the  lie  of  the  country,  near  at  hand, 

*  In  1805  after  the  attack  by  Holkar,  again  in  1823,  and  finally 
(by  the  future  Lord  Napier  of  Magdala),  a  few  years  before  the 
Mutiny. 


220  DELHI 

by  a  drive :  we  went  first  to  the  house  of  the  Deputy- 
Commissioner,  Mr.  R.  Clarke,  who  lived  close  to 
the  historic  "  Ridge" — the  lines  which  we  held  at 
the  time  of  the  siege — about  a  mile  and  a  half 
north  of  Delhi.  Here  are  the  cantonments  where 
the  English  live,  but  there  are  not  many  residents 
in  Delhi — far  fewer  than  I  had  expected — and  the 
garrison  is  extremely  small,  as  the  fort  is  not  con- 
sidered healthy.  Mr.  Clarke  showed  us  a  good  map 
of  our  position  on  the  red  rocks  of  the  Ridge,  of 
which  General  Barnard  was  able  to  take  possession 
after  his  victory  at  Badli-ki-sarai  on  June  8 ;  it 
rises  sixty  feet  above  the  city,  at  a  distance  in- 
creasing from  a  thousand  yards  to  two  and  a  half 
miles,  and,  with  the  city  wall  and  the  river,  en- 
closes a  triangle  of  low-lying  woodland. 

We  drove  past  the  Memorial  Monument — a 
Gothicspire — to  Hindu  Rao's  house,  on  the  highest 
point  of  the  Ridge,  to  the  Mosque,  the  Flagstaff, 
and  the  old  Observatory;  these  were  the  four 
points  where  General  Barnard  established  pickets 
supported  by  guns.  But  little  of  the  city  is  to  be 
seen  from  here  now,  as  trees  intervene.  It  was  a 
wonderful  ready-made  position  both  for  attack  and 
defence.  On  the  left  it  was  defended  by  the  river, 
and  though  on  the  right  there  was  cover  for  the 
enemy  on  the  broken  ground — covered  with  brush- 
wood— and  in  the  deep  sunk  roads  and  ditches, 
clumps  of  trees  and  low  rocks,  yet  the  enclosed 
nature  of  the  ground  prevented  any  attack  in  force 
on  our  flank  or  rear,  and  it  covered  the  line  of 
communication  to  Amballa  and  the  Punjab,  which 


THE    KASHMERE    GATE  221 

it  was  vital  to  our  existence  to  keep  open.  From 
Sir  John  Lawrence  in  the  Punjab  came  the  means 
of  retaking  Delhi  and  so  saving  India.  Taking 
advantage  of  their  hereditary  hatred  of  Delhi  and 
of  the  Mohammedans,  he  separated  the  Sikhs  from 
the  other  Sepoys  in  the  Oude  and  Bengal  regi- 
ments, and,  with  the  addition  of  fresh  levies  from 
the  north,  sent  large  reinforcements  to  the  relief 
of  Delhi ;  finally  he  parted  even  with  his  last 
reserve  under  Nicholson. 

Returning  from  the  Ridge  we  drove  past  Lud- 
low Castle — a  cockneyfied  and  very  uninspiring 
bungalow;  we  saw  the  remains  of  the  magazine 
fired  May  1 1  to  prevent  the  valuable  store  of 
ammunition  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands,  after  a 
gallant  defence  by  Lieut.  Willoughby  and  eight 
others ;  amongst  them  was  the  father  of  my  friend 
Professor  Forrest.  We  had  driven  under  the 
Kashmere  Gate,  where  the  traces  of  the  thrilling 
attack  on  September  14,  under  Lieuts.  Home  and 
Salkeld,  still  remain.  The  breaches  are  still  visible 
in  the  red  face  of  the  city  walls,  where  our  men 
climbing  to  almost  certain  destruction  enabled  the 
three  columns  under  John  Nicholson  to  obtain 
possession  of  part  of  the  walls.  A  week's  hard 
fighting  within  the  city  was  still  to  come,  and  John 
Nicholson's  life,  and  the  lives  of  other  brave  men, 
were  sacrificed,  before  the  entire  city,  with  the 
Palace,  was  again  in  our  hands. 

This  was  all  interesting,  but  in  no  way  beautiful, 
and  it  was  refreshing  to  continue  our  drive  to  the 
eastern  corner  of  the  city,  on  to  the  Maidan  and 


222  DELHI 

past  Shah  Jehan's  Fort.  The  Fort,  though  not  so 
picturesque,  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  that  at 
Agra,  with  its  imposing  and  extensive  line  of  rosy 
red  battlements ;  the  light  and  graceful  cupolas 
and  kiosks,  raised  on  slender  pillars,  are  in  strong 
contrast  to  the  solid  masonry  of  the  walls.  It 
also  stands  above  the  Jumna  in  a  position  some- 
what similar  to  that  of  the  Agra  Fort.  The  Jumna, 
like  many  Eastern  rivers,  overflows  its  banks  con- 
siderably at  the  time  of  the  melting  snow  and  the 
rains,  but  unfortunately  the  receding  waters  do  not 
always — like  the  Ganges — leave  behind  them  any 
fertilising  influence,  but  frequently  destroy  rather 
than  promote  vegetation.  The  whole  space  between 
the  high  banks  and  the  stream  is,  at  this  time  of 
year,  a  barren  waste  of  shifting  sand ;  over  this  the 
Fort  looks  on  two  sides.  Here,  in  the  days  of  the 
Mogul  emperors,  took  place  the  elephant  combats 
and  reviews,  in  sight  of  Shah  Jehan's  Palace  win- 
dows. The  south  and  west  sides  of  the  Fort  were 
protected  by  a  moat,  now  dry. 

At  the  south-western  corner  of  the  Fort  is  the 
Delhi  Gate,  whence  we  looked  across  the  Maidan 
to  the  great  Mosque,  the  Jumma  Musjid,  the  grand 
andsimplebuildingwithwhichShahJehanennobled 
his  creation,  modern  Delhi.  Curiously  enough,  no 
place  of  prayer  was  provided  by  Shah  Jehan  in  the 
Palace  here  as  at  Agra  and  at  Fatehpur  Sikri. 

It  was  towards  sunset  when  we  first  saw  this 
glorious  Mosque,  the  masterpiece  of  religious 
architecture  in  India,  and  most  sacred  to  all 
Mohammedans  here  and  in  Central  Asia.     It  is 


THE   JUMMA    MUSJID  223 

raised  on  a  high  platform,  and  approached  on 
three  sides  by  grand  flights  of  steps.  It  is  one 
of  the  few  mosques  where  it  is  distinctly  evident 
that  the  architect  has  aimed  at  producing  a  pleasing 
effect  to  the  eye  from  without.  The  lofty  basement 
is  built  round  an  outcrop  of  the  sandstone  rock,  in 
the  same  way  that  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  at  Jeru- 
salem, covers  and  crowns  the  rock  of  Abraham. 
From  this  platform  rises  a  finely  composed  group 
of  domes  and  minarets,  cupolas  and  gate-wayS; 
chiefly  of  the  usual  fine-coloured  red  sandstone ; 
the  domes,  however,  are  of  white  marble,  and  the 
tall  minarets — which  are  a  striking  feature  of  the 
building,  and  the  most  graceful  I  have  so  far  seen 
— are  striped  in  alternate  vertical  lines  of  red  sand- 
stone and  white  marble. 

The  setting  of  the  Mosque  is  now  very  different 
from  that  which  surrounded  it  before  1857  :  then  it 
looked  down  on  the  flat  roofs  of  a  densely  popu- 
lated network  of  houses  covering  the  space  between 
it  and  the  Fort.  Here,  many  of  the  big-wigs,  rich 
merchants,  and  native  noblemen  had  their  palaces 
— though  the  greater  number  of  the  latter  lived 
outside  the  town,  near  the  water — and  here  was 
one  of  the  bazaars  which  Bishop  Heber  describes  as 
being  like  the  Rows  at  Chester.  All  this  quarter 
was  destroyed  after  the  Mutiny,  and  to-day  the 
Mosque  rises  over  a  wide-spreading  open  space, 
carpeted  with  coarse  turf,  which  is  dotted  here  and 
there  with  stunted  trees  sheltering  some  tempo- 
rary native  booths  and  shanties  ;  from  them  the 
smoke  of  the  eveningfires  pervades  theatmosphere, 


224  DELHI 

carrying  with  it  the  peculiar,  pungent  smell  so  cha- 
racteristic of  the  land  and  hour.  The  sun,  setting 
in  the  brilliant  cloudless  sky,  made  the  white  marble 
domes,  silhouetted  against  it,  appear  quite  dark, 
and  the  sharply  alternating  forms  of  rounded  dome 
and  upjutting  minaret  looked  like  an  Arabic  in- 
scription along  the  horizon. 

The  sun  goes  down  as  in  a  sphere  of  gold 
Behind  the  arm  of  the  city,  which  between, 
With  all  that  length  of  domes  and  minarets, 
Athwart  the  splendour,  black  and  crooked  runs 
Like  a  Turk  verse  along  a  scimitar. 

It  was  Friday  when  we  visited  it  and  the  hour,  that 
of  the  weekly  evening  prayer  ;  so,  the  Mosque  was 
crowded  with  a  large  concourse  of  faithful  saying 
their  prayers — a  most  impressive  sight.  It  can 
hardly  have  been  surpassed  in  impressiveness  in  the 
old  days  when  Aurangzeb  attended  prayers  in 
state.  He  came  from  the  Fort,  every  Friday,  under 
a  gilded  canopy,  borne  aloft  on  the  back  of  an  ele- 
phant, which  was  bedizened  with  red  paint  and 
richly  decorated  with  gorgeous  jewelled  trappings, 
and  silver  bells  and  chains,  and  with  white  Tibetan 
cow-tails  hanging  from  its  ears  like  immense 
whiskers  ;  or  else  he  was  carried  by  eight  men,  on 
an  azure-and-gold  throne,  with  a  bodyguard  of 
officials  with  silver  maces,  and  attendants  with 
peacock  feather  fans,  and  followed  by  a  train  of 
rajahs  on  horseback  or  in  palanquins. 

No  one  who  has  ever  watched  a  congregation  of 
Mohammedans  at  prayer  can  have  failed  to  be  im- 
mensely struck  by  their  intense  concentration  and 


THE  JUMMA  MUSJID,  DELHI— 
AT  SUNSET 

"This  grand  yet  simple  building  of  Shah  Jehan  is  the 
masterpiece  of  religious  architecture  in  India.  From 
the  lofty  basement,  built  round  an  outcrop  of  the 
sandstone  rock,  a  finely  composed  group  of  domes 
and  minarets,  cupolas  and  gateways  rises  over 
a  wide-spreading  open  space,  dotted  with  stunted 
trees  sheltering  some  temporary  native  booths  :  from 
them  the  smoke  of  the  evening  fires  pervades  the 
atmosphere.  The  sun,  setting  in  the  brilliant  cloud- 
less sky,  causes  the  marble  domes  silhouetted  against 
it  to  appear  quite  dark,  and  the  sharply  alternating 
forms  of  rounded  dome  and  upjutting  minaret  look 
like  an  Arabic  inscription  along  the  horizon." 


MOHAMMEDAN    WORSHIP  225 

absorption  in  their  religious  exercises,  and  by  the 
rapt  devotion  which  seems  to  exclude  all  conscious- 
ness of  the  outside  world.  Even  in  India,  where 
Mohammedanism  is  by  no  means  at  its  best  and 
purest,  it  is  most  affecting.  The  secret  of  the  won- 
derful hold  the  Moslem  faith  has,  over  a  large  part 
of  the  human  race,  lies  probably,  says  F.  D.  Maurice, 
in  the  intensity  and  vividness  with  which  it  re- 
cognises the  existence  of  God,  His  Omnipotence 
and  Omnipresence.  The  God  of  the  Mohammedan 
is  altogether  outside  and  aloof  from  the  world,  but 
He  is  intensely  personal,  and  the  keen  perception 
that  the  Mohammedan  has  of  the  presence  of  this 
personal  God,  leads  him  to  doubt,  when  he  sees 
Europeans  at  worship,  whether  they  really  believe 
in  God  at  all.  The  effect  produced  by  their  won- 
derful self-abasement  in  the  presence  of  the  Eternal, 
is  heightened  and  intensified  by  the  marvellous 
rhythmical  movement,  as  of  the  most  finished  mili- 
tary drill,  all  swaying  in  perfect  unison,  when  the 
great  crowd  rises  and  falls,  bows  or  kneels  or 
stands,  simultaneously.  The  thrilling  effect  of 
large  numbers  of  men,  all  impelled  by  the  same 
emotion,  makes  a  far  stronger  impression  when  the 
common  feeling  is  thus  silently  expressed  in  action 
before  our  eyes,  and  it  suggested  inevitably  to  us 
the  strength  of  the  undercurrent  of  faith  which 
controls  the  sixty  million  Mohammedans  of  India  ; 
and  might,  in  any  crisis,  sweep  them  along,  with 
incalculable  force,  in  the  most  unforeseen  direction. 
On  our  way  back  we  made  a  considerable  ddtotir 
through  some  of  the  narrow  crowded  and  tortuous 


226  DELHI 

alleys  of  Delhi.  A  glimpse  up  a  side  street  from 
the  Chandni  Chauk  reveals  another  attractive  view 
of  the  Jumma  Musjid,  its  domes  and  minarets 
ranged  in  perspective,  rising  above  the  ragged, 
many-coloured  houses  at  their  feet.  The  vista  is 
closed  by  a  bit  of  the  high  encircling  red  wall, 
pierced  at  this  point  by  its  northern  gateway. 
Through  it,  and  up  and  down  its  many-stepped 
approach,  the  silent-footed  Moslem  crowd  for  ever 
come  and  go. 

The  Chandni  Chauk  and  other  main  streets 
are  fine  thoroughfares,  shaded  with  trees,  but  on 
the  whole  we  did  not  think  the  Delhi  lanes  looked 
either  inviting  or  picturesque,  but  decidedly 
dirty.  Everything  was  covered  thick  with  a 
coating  of  drab-coloured  dust.  It  brought  before 
us  the  squalid  side  of  Indian  life  :  mean,  low, 
flat-roofed  houses,  often  out  of  the  perpendicular, 
and  needing  here  a  fresh  coat  of  paint,  there 
a  renewal  of  the  stained  and  peeling  stucco.  In 
old  days,  many  of  the  houses  were  of  bamboo 
and  roofed  with  cane  or  thatch,  and  at  the  season 
when  high  winds  prevail  disastrous  conflagra- 
tions, sweeping  away  thousands  of  houses,  were 
not  unusual,  and  were  so  rapid  in  their  advance 
that  the  horses  in  the  stable  and  the  women  in  the 
zenanas  frequently  perished  :  and  this  in  spite  of 
the  water-courses  which  then  flowed  down  all  the 
principal  streets  of  the  town,  bringing  pure  water 
from  the  Jumna  at  a  spot  one  hundred  miles 
north  of  Delhi.  These  channels  of  water  in  the 
town  were  however  closed  in  after  the  Mutiny ; 


A  STREET  IN  DELHI,  LOOKING 
TOWARDS  THE  JUMMA  MUSJID 

"Wherever  the  fantastic  outline  of  this  stately 
group  of  domes  and  minarets  appears  the  effect  is 
pleasing,  and  their  solemn  dignity  is  enhanced  where 
the  foreground  is  occupied  by  the  unimportant  but 
picturesque  buildings  of  the  native  city." 


DELHI    CITY  227 

originally,  after  flowing  through  the  town  between 
raised  stone  walks,  they  were  led  to  the  Emperor's 
Palace,  and  there  irrigated  the  oranges  and  roses 
in  the  Sultana's  garden.^ 

There  was,  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  a  talk  of  the 
advisability  of  pulling  down  the  walls  of  the  city, 
so  as  to  allow  a  freer  circulation  of  air  in  the 
crowded  streets.  The  natives  were  strenuously 
objecting,  and  the  authorities  felt  therefore  more 
than  ever  convinced  that  there  was  wisdom  in  the 
proposal. 

We  were  not  very  favourably  impressed  with 
the  appearance  of  the  people  here,  and  their  attitude 
towards  us  did  not  seem  very  cordial :  I  could 
quite  appreciate  Bishop  French's  feeling  in  1883, 
that  to  live  in  Delhi  was  like  living  on  a  volcano. 
In  spite  of  all  one  hears  at  times  to  the  contrary, 
I  fear  there  is  still  amongst  the  Mohammedan 
natives,  a  smouldering  feeling  of  political  animosity 
towards  us :  many  of  the  men  are  not  yet  dead 
whose  hands  were  dyed  in  our  blood.  A  section 
of  the  vernacular  Press  helps  to  foster  this  feeling, 
and  religious  fanatics  are  doubtless  busy,  in  many 
quarters,  stirring  the  embers. 

A  certain  Nawab  Shams-ud-din  was  executed 

*  There  are  still  two  canals — the  Eastern  and  Western  Jumna 
Canals,  originally  the  work  of  the  beneficent  Feroz  Shah  Tuglak — 
which  irrigate  the  district  and  now  divert  such  a  body  of  water  from 
the  Jumna,  before  it  reaches  Delhi,  that,  except  during  the  rains, 
the  river-bed  may,  in  places,  almost  be  crossed  dryshod.  The 
district  is  not  very  fertile,  and  one  of  the  great  benefits  British 
rule  has  conferred  on  the  population  has  been  that  of  restoring 
and  adding  to  the  old  irrigation  system. 


228  DELHI 

in  Delhi  in  1835  for  the  cowardly  murder  of  Mr. 
William  Fraser  here,  and  for  long  years  after- 
wards his  tomb  was  venerated  as  that  of  a  martyr, 
though  he  was  an  acknowledged  7nauvais  sujet, 
with  nothing  to  recommend  him  but  having  shed 
the  blood  of  an  unbeliever.  This  is  not  a  solitary 
instance,  and  we  were  assured  that  this  attitude 
has  not  really  changed  : — in  fact,  during  our  stay, 
an  Englishman  was  attacked  by  a  fanatic  in  the 
street. 

Fortunately  for  us,  perhaps,  there  exists  great 
religious  antagonism  between  Mohammedan  and 
Hindu; — there  is  no  possibility  of  permanent  union 
between  the  two.  Mohammedanism,  with  its  hard 
conception  of  a  God  aloof  from  the  world,  but 
personal  with  intense  distinctness,  is  irreconcilable 
with  Hinduism,  and  its  vague  shifting  ideas,  its 
enmity  to  all  that  is  personal  and  individual,  in 
human  or  divine  life.  Delhi  has  been  comparatively 
lately  the  scene  of  bitter  feuds  between  the 
Mohammedans  and  Hindus  ;  the  Government 
officials  usually  succeed  in  calming  the  outbursts 
of  fanaticism,  and  have  sometimes  called  in  the 
Cambridge  Brotherhood  to  help  in  reconciling  the 
contending  parties.  We  may  hope  that  in  process 
of  time,  the  patient  self-sacrificing  love  and  devo- 
tion of  the  missionaries,  combined  with  the  justice 
and  zeal  for  duty  of  the  civil  administrators,  may 
awaken,  in  the  minds  of  the  natives,  a  sympathetic 
response  towards  their  white  rulers,  which  will 
sweep  away  political  enmity,  and  bridge  the  gulf 
between  East  and  West. 


THE    LAHORE    GATE 


229 


The  next  day  we  devoted  to  seeing  the  Palace  in 
the  Fort — once  the  most  magnificent  Palace  in  the 
East,  perhaps  in  the  world.  I  explored  part  of  it 
when  I  went  out  for  an  early  walk  before  breakfast. 

The  Lahore  Gate  by  which  we  entered  is  grand, 


LAHORE   GATE,    DELHI 


but  to  my  mind  not  to  be  compared  with  the  Delhi 
Gate  at  Agra.  Passing  under  the  cavernous  arch, 
the  road  runs  through  a  long  quaint  and  lofty 
vaulted  hall,  two  storeys  high.  As  everybody  says, 
it  is  like  the  nave  of  a  cathedral,  but  it  is  lined  with 
small  and  low  shops,  where  soldiers  were  lounging 
about  and  marketing.  Here  in  Shah  Jehan's  time, 
the  Emperor's  bodyguard  were  lodged  in  small 
low  rooms,  raised  some  feet  above  the  road  and 
opening  on  to  a  causeway  ;  their  horses  were 
tethered  to  rings  on  the  edge  of  the  causeway, 


230  DELHI 

where  they  took  their  feed,  and  where  their  masters 
squatted  and  gossiped  in  the  day-time  and 
mounted  guard  at  night.  Down  the  centre  ran  the 
water-course  which  irrigated  the  city.  This 
covered  street  has  an  octagonal  court  midway, 
where  the  sunlight  streams  in,  and  whence  pas- 
sages diverged  to  the  zenana  and  courts  of  justice. 
Bishop  Heber,  when  he  came,  in  1823,  to  have  an 
audience  of  Akbar  Shah — the  King  of  Delhi  of  the 
day — found  himself,  immediately  on  leaving  this 
magnificent  entrance,  in  a  ruinous  and  exceedingly 
dirty  courtyard.  Here,  to  his  considerable  dis- 
comfiture, he  was  made  to  dismount  and  pick  his 
way,  in  thin  shoes,  gown  and  cassock,  through  the 
mud,  to  the  Hall  of  Audience  at  the  eastern  side, 
amongst  pestering  swarms  of  beggars,  into  the 
royal  presence  of  the  King — the  "poor  old  man"  (of 
thirty-five) — on  whom  he  bestows  much  rather  ill- 
merited  commiseration.  When  Lord  Lake  took 
possession  of  Delhi  in  1803  he  found  the  Great 
Mogul  under  the  thumb  of  Sindhia  and  his  vora- 
cious French  troops,  living  indeed  in  his  Palace 
with  a  semblance  of  royalty,  but  almost  literally 
starved  ;  a  great  deal  of  the  beautiful  inlaid  work 
and  the  flowers  and  leaves  of  green  serpentine, 
lapis  lazuli,  agate  and  porphyry,  which  adorned 
the  Palace  walls,  had  been  gouged  out  of  their 
white  marble  setting  and  sold  to  buy  food  for  him 
and  his  family.  The  Palace  had  already  been 
looted,  more  than  once,  since  the  memorable  day 
in  1739,  when  the  Persian  Nadir  Shah  swept  back 
to  Teheran  with  booty  worth  many  millions  sterling, 


THE    LAST   MOGULS  231 

including  the  Peacock  Throne  from  the  Dewan 
i-Khas  and  the  Koh-i-noor.  Delhi  was  continually 
at  the  mercy  of  Afghans  and  Mahrattas,  who  made 
successive  incursions,  and  the  King  was  fortunate 
indeed,  in  securing  our  protection,  with  an  assured 
income  of  fifteen  lakhs  of  rupees  and  as  much 
panoply  of  state  and  ceremony  as  he  cared  to  dis- 
play in  the  Palace  of  his  ancestors,  whilst  we  ruled 
and  kept  order  in  his  name.  Thestate  and  ceremony 
with  which  he  surrounded  himself,  and  the  splen- 
did income  at  his  disposal,  did  not  apparently  in- 
volve any  obligation  to  keep  the  marvellous  build- 
ing in  decent  order,  for,  when  Bishop  Heber 
visited  it,  all  was  dirty,  desolate  and  forlorn  ;*  the 
doors  and  windows  were  in  a  state  of  dilapida- 
tion ;  the  baths  and  fountains  dry,  the  halls  were 
encumbered  with  piles  of  old  discarded  furniture, 
the  inlaid  pavement  was  covered  with  gardeners' 
sweepings,  bats  and  birds  had  befouled  what  re- 
mained of  the  beautiful  pietra  dura  work  and,  even 
the  Emperor's  Throne  ;  and  peepul  trees  were 
springing  from,  and  bursting  asunder,  the  marble 
walls.  But  an  Eastern  Sovereign  with  no  king- 
dom but  a  palace,  and  no  duties  and  no  scope  for 
action  outside  its  walls,  could  not  fail  of  being  a 
despicable  object,  a  centre  of  evil  practices  which 
varied  from  ill-treating  wretched  slave  girls  to  em- 
ploying the  old  Mogul  Sultans'  seals  to  forge  title- 
deeds  of  every  kind.  The  outward  decay  was  but 
a  symbol  of  the  corruption  and  the  wretchedness 
that  prevailed,  where  a  weak,  self-centred  autocrat 

*  Bishop  Heber's  "  Journal,"  p.  294. 


232  '    DELHI 

indulged  his  every  fancy  without  restraint,  pro- 
tected from  the  results  of  his  actions  by  the 
implied  sanction  of  the  East  India  Company. 
That  so  corrupt  a  system  should  have  been  able 
to  exist  unmolested,  by  the  protection  of  the 
British,  seems,  in  some  degree,  an  explanation  of 
the  awful  retribution  which,  in  the  end,  fell  on  the 
guilty  and  the  innocent  alike. 

In  the  Fort  there  is  not  now  much  left  of  Shah 
Jehan's  once  splendid  Palace  and  its  beautiful 
gardens — though  the  conscientious  care  of  Eng- 
land has  lately,  with  commendable  zeal,  replaced 
all  that  is  recoverable  of  our  pilferings,  such  as 
the  Orpheus  Mosaic  carried  away  by  Sir  John 
Jones  in  1857 — but  what  there  is,  is  decently 
ordered  and  arranged,  with,  perhaps,  rather  dead- 
alive  and  Museum-like  precision.  Those  who  are 
interested  can  study  it,  as  Ferguson  says,  to 
understand  what  the  arrangements  of  a  complete 
Palace  were,  when  deliberately  undertaken  and 
carried  out  on  a  uniform  plan.  There  is  the  mas- 
sive, plain,  expanse  of  the  Diwan-i-Am,  or  Hall  of 
Public  Audience,  a  great  square  one-storeyd  hall 
supported  by  three  rows  of  nine  red  sandstone 
pillars  and  open  on  three  sides  ;  it  is  very  like  that 
at  Agra:  there  is  the  beautiful  Diwan-i-Khas, 
standing  on  a  platform  looking  east  across  the 
curving  river,  now  low  and  at  some  distance,  but 
in  flood-time,  washing  the  foot  of  the  high  bank 
— faced  with  stones  and  overhung  by  the  pro- 
jecting eaves  of  balconied  pavilions  and  latticed 
summer-houses — which  forms  the  eastern  defence 


To  face  f.  232 


THE    PALACE  233 

of  the  Fortress  Palace.  The  spot  commands  a 
view  of  the  low  rocky  hills,  at  the  foot  of  which  lies 
01dDelhi,and  across  wide  plains,  fading  away  tothe 
faint  blue  horizon,  where  lie  Oude  and  Lucknow. 
In  this  building  once  stood  the  celebrated  Peacock 
Throne,  now  at  Teheran.  To  the  south  of  this  court 
is  the  Zenana,  and  on  the  north  the  Hamman  ; 
both  are  separated  from  it  by  a  white  marble  court- 
yard, through  which  from  north  to  south  runs  a 
shallow  watercourse,  right  beneath  the  Diwan-i- 
Khas.  This  Private  Hall  of  Audience  is  open  on 
all  sides,  and  consists  of  a  central  hall  surrounded 
by  a  double  colonnade  :  the  Hall  once  had  a  silver 
ceiling.  The  whole  building  is  of  beautiful  white 
marble,  profusely  decorated  with  gilding  (restored) 
and  painted  flowers  and  other  designs  above;  below 
is  the  pietra  dura  work  of  the  pupils  of  Austen  of 
Bordeaux. 

The  white  marble  Baths  have  fine  pietra  dura 
pavements,  the  first  I  had  seen — as  well  as  decora- 
tions of  the  same  nature  on  the  walls  ;  the  beauti- 
ful marble  Palace  of  the  ladies  is  also  decorated 
with  inlaid  work  below  and  fresco  above.  It  was 
not  pleasant  to  see  signs  that  the  jasper  and  other 
stones  had  been  quite  recently  picked  or  chiselled 
out. 

Close  by  is  Aurangzeb's  white  and  grey  marble 
Moti  Musjid,  of  small  proportions,  which  is  entered 
by  a  little  bronze  door  of  delicate  workmanship, 
covered  with  designs  in  low  relief.  The  courtyard 
is  surrounded  by  a  high  wall  of  white  marble,  also 
decorated  with  patterns  and  flowers  in  low  relief. 


234  DELHI 

The  Mosque  proper  is  ornamented  in  the  same 
manner,  and  its  Saracenic  arches  show  slight  signs 
of  Hindu  influence. 

There  is  all  this,  and  more:  but  Delhi  Palace,  I 
must  confess,  did  not  appeal  to  me.  Perhaps  it 
showed  signs  of  having  been  in  the  past  too  com- 
plete, or  perhaps  it  is  at  present  too  much  pervaded 
with  an  atmosphere  of  pipeclay;  for  there  is  some- 
thing to  be  said,  from  the  artist's  point  of  view,  for 
the  fine  regal  contempt  of  the  old  rdgime  for  bour- 
geois cleaning  and  mending,  as  all  will  agree  who 
have  visited  a  French  chateau  after  it  has  passed 
through  the  hands  of  Viollet-le-Duc.  Certainly  the 
beautiful  old  Delhi  Palace  left  us  cold  and — shall 
I  say  it? — slightly  bored:  and  one  turns  for  refresh- 
ment, from  the  actual,  present  facts,  to  the  graphic 
pictures  of  the  Mogul  Emperors  and  their  Court, 
left  us  by  the  old  French  doctor  and  his  com- 
patriot, the  jeweller,  in  1670. 

In  their  days,  the  great  Maidan  before  the  Palace 
was  filled  with  the  encampments  of  those  of  the 
great  Rajput  nobles  whose  week  of  "waiting"  it 
was.  They  and  their  followers  pitched  their  tents 
here,  outside  the  walls ;  it  was  in  their  terms  of 
service  with  the  Emperor  that  they  were  never  to 
do  duty  or  mount  guard  within  the  walls  of  a  for- 
tress. Inside  the  Palace,  the  Mogul's  Afghan  or 
Persian  Emirs,  of  the  regular  army,  mounted  guard 
in  rotation.  The  arcaded  courts  they  occupied 
were  gay  with  gorgeous  awnings  of  brocade,  with 
flowery  gardens  and  sparkling  watercourses  and 
fountains ;   amongst  them  stood  booths  of  reed, 


OLD    DAYS  235 

or  sweet-scented  grass,  kept  cool  by  constantly 
spraying  water.  Here  they  took  their  repose,  and 
enjoyed  the  dishes  served  to  them,  with  much 
ceremony,  from  Aurangzeb's  kitchen. 

The  whole  Palace  buzzed  with  life.  There  were 
hosts  of  quaintly  dressed  and  armed  soldiers, 
regular  and  irregular,  of  all  varieties  and  from  all 
districts  of  Northern  India;  great  and  smallofficials 
of  the  Courts  of  Justice  and  all  the  various  depart- 
ments of  the  highly  organised  civil  administration.* 
Vast  halls  also  were  filled  with  nimble-fingered 
artisans,  ready  to  supply  the  gold  inlaid  weapons 
of  the  bodyguard,  or  fantastic  armour  and  rich 
trappings  for  horses  and  elephants,  or  the  em- 
broidered velvet  awnings  with  which  the  Emirs, 
"  by  command,"  adorned  their  arcades  on  great 
festivals,  and  which,  we  are  told,  they  subse- 
quently forced  the  smaller  folk  to  buy  for  vests ! 
Painters  and  goldsmiths,  jewellers  and  lacquer 
workers,  as  well  as  representatives  of  the  humbler 
"lesser  arts"  of  tailoring  and  shoemaking,  all  had 
their  quarters  here:  and  fine  muslins  for  turbans,  or 
for  use  in  the  zenana,  were  spun  and  woven  in  the 
precincts ;  these  were  beautifully  embroidered,  and 
worth  several  gold  pieces,  but  so  delicately  fine 
that  they  would  only  stand  a  few  hours' wear.  The 
life  of  the  district  was  concentrated  in  the  fortress 
to  such  a  degree  that  Bernier  found,  that  if  he 
wished  to  have  a  good  supply  of  wholesome  food, 
it  was  necessary  to  arrange  a  secret  understanding 

*  The  Land  Revenue  system  still  in  force  in  British  India  is 
based  on  that  of  Akbar. 


236  DELHI 

with  the  King's  purveyors  in  the  Palace,  and  to 
buy,  from  them,  the  portions  intended  for  their 
master's  household  and  guests.  Then,  indeed,  he 
secured  a  plentiful  provision  of  delicacies,  not  to 
be  obtained  in  the  bazaars  of  the  town:  fresh  fish, 
tender  kids,  and  cages  of  partridge,  duck,  or  hare, 
sweetmeats  of  the  best,  and — in  winter — black  and 
white  grapes  brought,  in  dainty  cotton  packing, 
from  Persia  or  Bokhara,  or  apples  and  pears,  dried 
raisins,  apricots,  and  prunes  from  the  same  coun- 
tries ;  while  his  lemonade  was  cooled  v/ith  ice, 
artificially  made  in  a  manner  which,  with  his  usual 
exactness,  Bernier  describes  in  accurate  detail. 
"  Unquestionably,"  he  says,  "the  great  are  in  the 
enjoyment  of  everything ;  but,  in  Delhi,  there  is 
no  middle  state — a  man  must  either  be  of  the 
highest  rank  or  live  miserably." 

The  Emirs  and  Rajahs  in  waiting  were  all  sum- 
moned under  penalty  to  attend  the  Emperor's 
audience-chamber  twice  a  day,  at  eleven,  and  again 
at  six,  by  strangely  weird  music  from  the  Naubat 
Khana :  there,  twenty-four  enormous  instruments  of 
mysterious  construction  sounded  at  stated  times  of 
day  and  night,  with  an  almost  insupportable  roar, 
which  distance,  however,  appears  to  have  mellowed 
to  a  solemnly  impressive  and  even  melodious  har- 
mony. The  wild  notes  proceeding  from  univalve 
shells  used  as  trumpets  may  be  still  heard  resound- 
ingfromHindu  shrines  at  sundown;  they  emit  what 
heard  at  close  quarters  is  an  intolerable  din,  but 
sounds  from  afar  very  impressive.  At  a  balcony,  or 
large  window  in  the  seraglio  wall  overlooking  the 


THE    GREAT    MOGUL  237 

Diwan-i-Am,  the  Great  Mogul  appeared,  robed  in 
white,  for  two  hours  at  noon,  surrounded  by  his 
family  and  personal  attendants  waving  large  fans 
and  peacocks'  tails.  Below,  on  a  square  dais,  within 
a  silver  rail,  hung  with  deep  gold-fringed  brocade, 
are  the  courtiers  and  those  who  have  the  ejttrde, 
splendidly  apparelled,  with  white  herons'  tails 
floating  from  their  head-gear ;  they  stand  in  atti- 
tudes of  deep  humility,  and  do  not  venture  to  raise 
their  eyes  to  the  royal  countenance,  but  echo  every 
word  he  utters  with  a  chorus  of  ''Wonderful,  won- 
derful!"  ;  like  the  courtiers  in  Andersen's  tale  of  the 
Emperor's  new  clothes,  they  act  up  to  the  precepts 
of  the  Persian  proverb : 

If  the  King  should  chance  to  say  "  it's  night,"  at  noon, 
You  will  cry,  "  I  see  the  stars  and  moon." 

Having  received  the  homage  of  those  classes  of 
his  subjects  whose  day  it  was  to  come  to  court — 
and  who,  unless  specially  summoned,  remained  on 
the  further  side  of  the  watercourse,  six  inches  wide, 
which  traversed  the  court,  the  King  reviewed  the 
cavalry  of  one  or  two  of  the  Emirs.  The  horses  in 
fantastic  armour  with  plumes  on  their  heads  were  all 
ingeniously  branded  with  mark  and  number,  to 
prevent  the  same  mount  doing  duty  on  different 
regimental  review  days.  Then  he  inspected  a  selec- 
tion of  the  royal  stud,  to  assure  himself  they  were 
in  good  condition,  and  also  a  long  procession  of 
animals  kept  for  the  chase  or  for  wild  beast  com- 
bats. Fighting  elephants  and  antelopes,  buffaloes 
with  immense  horns  which  fought  with  lions  and 


238  DELHI 

tigers  ;  tame  leopards  and  panthers  trained  for  the 
chase  ;  every  variety  of  dog  for  sport,  all  in  red  em- 
broidered coats  ;  hawks  and  birds  of  prey,  with 
hood  and  bells,  employed  to  bringdown  partridges, 
cranes,  hares  and  even  antelopes,  after  they  have 
first  bewildered  them  by  repeated  buffets  of  their 
powerful  wings  and  then  blinded  them  with  sharp 
talons.  On  great  festivals,  the  courts  were  com- 
pletely covered  in  with  a  gold-embroidered,  red 
velvet  awning,  supported  on  great  masts  covered 
with  plates  of  gold  or  silver,and  the  possible  mono- 
tonyof  the  pageant  was  varied  by  valuable  offerings 
of  gold  or  jewels  from  the  courtiers,  carefully 
graduated  in  value  according  to  the  rank  of  the 
giver.  The  pearls,  rubies,  emeralds,  and  diamonds 
used  in  the  decoration  of  the  Peacock  Throne  were 
either  presents  sent  by  distant  sovereigns,  who 
desired  an  alliance  with  the  Great  Mogul,  or  else 
they  were  offerings  from  ambitious  or  guilty  nobles. 
The  Koh-i-noor  was  an  offering  from  Amir  Jumla 
to  Shah  Jehan.  When  the  Prince  of  Wales  visited 
India  in  1876  some  difficulty  was  experienced  in 
deciding  whether  the  great  native  princes  should 
be  allowed  to  follow  their  traditional  instincts  and 
present  him,  in  the  same  way,  with  some  treasured 
and  priceless  jewel  from  amongst  their  heirlooms. 
It  is  amusing  to  find,  that  the  wives  of  the  cour- 
tiers had  their  revenge  in  a  sort  of  fair  held  on 
these  occasions  in  the  Palace  seraglio  :  then  these 
great  ladies  sold  to  the  King  and  the  royal  prin- 
cesses, brocades  and  embroidered  muslins  and 
other  valuable  fabrics,  at  sums  proportionate  to  the 


DECADENCE  239 

beauty  and  dexterity  of  the  vendor.  These  fairs 
were  regarded  as  the  opportunity  to  present  a 
lovely  daughter  and  to  bring  her  to  the  notice  of 
royalty.  The  chaff  and  badinage  which  Bernier  de- 
scribes as  prevailing  there  sounds  more  like  the 
Court  of  Versailles  than  that  of  Delhi ;  but,  anxious 
though  he  is  to  convey  his  experiences  in  terms 
likely  to  be  understood  by  his  French  correspon- 
dent, yet  his  trained  love  of -exactness  does  not 
usually  allow  him  to  misrepresent  the  native  life. 
All  his  gossip  helps  us  to  realise  the  time  when  the 
deserted  courts  of  Delhi  Palace  were  instinct  with 
a  vivid  and  veryhuman  life  of  its  own.  It  was  never 
probably  life  of  the  highest  kind,  nor  reflecting  any 
very  elevated  ambition.  Before  Delhi  Palace  came 
into  being,  the  noble  endeavours  and  lofty  aspira- 
tions of  the  great  Akbar  had  quite  passed  away, 
and  with  them  his  liberal-minded,  strenuous  desire 
to  benefit  the  people  he  had  conquered,  and  so  to 
rule  them  that  conqueror  and  conquered  should 
become  one  people  :  and  the  wonderfully  wise  and 
humane  system  by  which  he  hoped  to  accomplish 
his  aim  had  petrified  into  an  elaborate  and  lifeless 
shell,  that  contained  the  elements  of  its  own  decay, 
as  is  the  tendency  of  all  institutions  unless  they  be 
constantly  swept  through  by  a  renewing  tide  of  the 
idea  to  which  they  owe  their  existence. 

The  increase  of  the  Mahratta  power,  which  led 
eventually  to  the  disintegration  of  the  Mogul 
Empire,  revealed,  before  Aurangzeb's  death,  the 
weak  spots  where  degeneration  was  already  setting 
in.    His  fanaticism  had   accentuated   the  line  of 


240  DELHI 

cleavage  between  the  Mohammedan  government 
and  its  Hindu  subjects  and  inaugurated  a  fatal  pro- 
cess of  separation.  The  nobles  had  lost  the  charac- 
teristics of  the  early  northern  conquerors  and  sunk 
far  towards  the  effeminacy  and  sloth  which  later 
distinguished  them.  Their  equipment  for  the  field 
was  an  index  of  their  inefficiency.  The  coats  of 
thick  wadding,  covered  with  chain  or  plate-armour, 
the  showy  horses  with  huge  saddles  and  velvet 
housings  fluttering  with  many  coloured  satin 
streamers  and  white  Tibetan  yaktails,  the  plumed 
harness  weighted  with  bells  and  jewelled  chains  ; 
these  no  doubt  formed  a  cavalry  *'  fitted  to  prance 
in  a  procession,"  but  not  to  endure  much  exertion, 
nor  to  emulate  the  exploits  of  the  hardy  horse- 
men of  Timur,  Babar  or  Akbar.  To  inefficiency 
was  added  corruption  and  a  total  relaxation  of  all 
discipline.  In  spite  of  Aurangzeb's  vigilance  the 
grossest  abuses  had  crept  in.  Aurangzeb  was 
courageous  and  wise,  but  he  was  suspicious,  dis- 
trustful and  cold-hearted  ;  and  as  great  a  contrast 
as  can  be  imagined  to  the  noble  Akbar  or  to  Babar 
with  his  easy  sociable  temper,  love  of  simple  plea- 
sures and  kind  affectionate  heart.  In  spite  of  the 
almost  divine  honours  paid  him  by  his  entourage, 
no  king  was  ever  so  cheated  or  worse  served. 
Aurangzeb  was  a  clever,  energetic,  astute  ruler  ; 
in  religious  matters — though  not  superstitious — 
he  was  of  the  strictest  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  and, 
in  the  middle  of  the  luxury  of  his  court,  he  lived 
a  life  of  self-denial  and  abstinence.  But,  in  his  old 
age,  he  wrote  this  pathetic  summing-up  of  his  long 


AURANGZEB  241 

reign,  "  The  instant  which  passed  in  power  has  left 
sorrow  behind  it.  I  have  not  been  the  guardian 
and  protector  of  the  Empire."  He  realised  that  he 
had  missed  the  idea  which  is  the  salt  of  dominion — 
missed  the  sympathetic  self-sacrifice  and  devotion 
to  the  good  of  the  community  which  form  the 
only  justification  for  imperial  rule. 


242  DELHI 

LIST  OF  SOVEREIGNS  WHO  REIGNED  AT  I 
From  1193  to  1837. 
The  Ghori  (Tajik),  Turki  and  Pathan  Kings  < 
Hindustan  who  reigned  at  Delhi. 


Muhammad  bin  Sam,  Ghori 

Kutub-ud-din,  1st  Dynasty  of  Slave  (Turki)  Kings     . 

Aram  Shah 

Shams-ud-din  Altamsh 

Rukn-ud-u-din  Firoz 

Sultana  Raziyah 

Balban 

Kaikubad 

Jelal-ud-din  Firoz  Shah  Khilji,  znd  Dynasty,  Pathan 

Ala-ud-din  Muhammad 

Shahab-ud-din  'Umar 

Kutab-ud-din  Mubarak        ...         ... 

Nasir-ud-din  Khusru 

Ghias-ud-din  Tughlak,  ^rd  Dynasty,  Pathan 

Muhammad  bin  Tughlak 

Firoz  Shah  Tughlak 

Muhammad  Shah 

Khizr  Khan  Saiyad,  ^th  Dynasty,  Saiyad    . 

Mubarak  Shah  II 

Muhammad  Shah 

'Alam  Shah 

Bahlol  Lodi,  ^th  Dynasty,  Pathan       .... 

Sikandar  Lodi      ........ 

Ibrahim  Lodi       ...  .... 


A.H. 

589 
602 
607 
607 
633 
634 
664 
686 
68g 
695 
715 
716 
720 
720 

752 
793 
817 
824 
837 
849 
855 
894 
923 


The  Mughal  Emperors  of  Hindustan. 


Babar  . 
Humayun*  . 
Akbar  . 
Jehangir 
Shah  Jehan . 
Aurangzeb  . 
Bahadur  Shah     . 
Jahandar  Shah    . 
Farrukhsiyar 
Muhammad  Shah 
'Ahmad  Shah 
Alamgir  II.  . 
Shah  Alam  . 
Akbar  II.      . 


1 173 
1221 

1252 


1210 
1211 
1236 
1236 
1266 
1289 
1290 
1296 
1316 
1316 
1321 
1321 
1325 
1351 
1391 
1414 
1421 
1434 
1445 
145 1 
1489 
1517 


899  1494 

937  1531 

963  1556 

1014  1605 

1037  1628 

1068  1658 

1118  1707 

1124  1713 

1124  1713 

1131  1719 

1 162  1748 

I 168  1754 
1759 
1806 

Bahadur  Shah 1252  {jg^^- 

'•'  This  reign  includes  the  Pathan  Interregnum  of  Sher  Shah  (1540-45), 
Salim  Shah,  and  other  Sur  Kings  up  to  1555 


CHAPTER  XII 
NEIGHBOURHOOD  OF  DELHI 

After  leaving  the  Fort  we  drove  to  the  KalaMusjid 
(or  Black  Mosque)  a  building  in  the  primitive, 
massive  style  of  the  second  Pathan  dynasty,  and 
datingfrom  the  time  of  Firoz  Shah  Tughlak(i38o). 
It  stands  deeply  embedded  in  the  heart  of  the 
narrow,  crowded  alleys  of  the  city.  It  is  a  solid, 
simple  and  stern  building,  a  great  contrast  to  those 
we  had  just  left.  The  colour  of  the  stone  of  which 
it  is  composed,  called  by  Carr  Stephen  quartz- 
ose  sandstone,  certainly  gives  it  a  very  dark  and 
sombre  appearance  ;  its  correct  name  however  is 
the  Kalan — or  Great — Mosque.  The  corner  towers 
and  walls  slope  inwards  in  away  characteristic  of 
some  of  the  architecture  of  these  early  days,  and 
it  stands  on  a  high  platform,  beneath  which  are 
rough-looking  rooms — for  travellers,  we  were  told. 
A  flight  of  twenty-eight  steep  steps  leads  to  a 
small  courtyard,  with  a  cloister  on  three  sides. 
The  arches  are  all  heavy  and  massive,  recalling 
our  Norman  ;  and  some  of  the  windows  are  fitted 
with  rude  red  stone  screens  with  cross-shaped 
openings.  The  Mosque  proper  and  the  cloister  and 
angle  towers — there  is  no  minaret — are  surmounted 


244      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

by  flat  domes,  held  together  simply  by  the  extreme 
strength  of  the  cement  used  :  a  special  note  of  the 
Mohammedan-Indian  buildings  of  this  date  which 
had  impressed  me  at  Bijapur.  This  was  probably 
the  town  Mosque  of  Firoz  Shah  Tughlak's  city 
Ferozabad.  The  site  of  the  imperial  city  of  that 
most  enlightened  prince  lies  between  the  Ridge 
and  the  river,  stretching  away  beyond  the  south 
gate  of  Shah  Jehanabad,  which  now  partly  covers 
it.  The  ruins  of  its  citadel,  or  Kotila,  maybe  seen 
on  the  river  bank  :  all  that  now  remains  of  Feroz 
Shah's  Palace,  with  its  blue  enamelled  domes  and 
golden  spire,  is  a  curious  ruined  pyramidal  struc- 
ture, consisting  of  four  square  terraces,  of  dimin- 
ishingsize,  placed  one  above  the  other,  and  crowned 
by  the  Lath  of  Asoka.  They  remind  one  of  the 
descriptions  of  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  palaces 
and  hanging  gardens.  This  Lath  is  a  stone  pillar 
thirty-seven  feet  high — originally  erected  by 
Asoka  near  Meerut — which  Firoz  Shah  brought 
here,  triumphantly,  with  infinite  care  and  pains,  a 
thousand  years  later,  and,  unconscious  of  its  real 
interest,  covered  with  a  golden  sheath.  It  bears 
four  of  the  oldest  inscriptions  in  India  (third  cen- 
tury B.C.) :  edicts  in  the  Pali  dialect  referring  to 
the  new  religion — a  form  of  Buddhism — which 
Asoka  wished  to  promulgate.  A  similar  Lath  of 
Asoka  which  Firoz  Shah  transported  from  the 
Amballa  district,  he  erected  at  the  other  ex- 
tremity of  his  town,  on  the  Ridge;  it  was  damaged 
by  an  explosion  in  1720.  A  third  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Fort  at  Allahabad. 


KALAN   MUSJID,    DELHI 


246      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

In  the  afternoon  we  drove  out  of  Delhi,  south, 
about  two  or  three  miles  beyond  the  Kotilato 
Indraput,  over  the  hard  uneven  ground,  formed  of 
the  remains  of  Firozabad.  Indraput  is  a  ruined 
fortified  town,  believed  to  occupy  the  site  of  the 
first  of  the  great  cities  which,  ever  since  the  days 
of  the  earliest  Aryan  settlement  in  India,  have  in 
turn  marked  the  place  where  the  last  outlying 
ridges  of  the  central  Rajputana  Hills  abut  on  the 
alluvial  plain  of  the  Jumna  valley. 

In  the  Mahabharata  we  find,  dimly  outlined, ♦ 
the  half  mythical  traditions  of  the  founding  of 
Indraprastha  (fifteenth  century  B.C.)  in  a  clearing 
amid  the  jungles  of  the  Jumna  valley.  The  snake- 
worshipping  aborigines  receded  before  the  Panda- 
vas,*  the  five  brothers  who  led  these  Aryan 
invaders,  and  the  kingdom  thus  established  lasted 
some  thousand  years,  covering  the  period  of  the 
wars  which  form  the  main  theme  of  this  Hindu 
classic.  The  succeeding  dynasty  was  that  of  the 
Gautamas  ;  namesakes  of  the  great  teacher  Sakya 
Muni,  a  Rajput  prince  whose  father  ruled  at  the 
time  of  Nebuchadnezzar  over  a  district  further 
south-east  on  the  borders  of  Oude.  From  his 
philosophical  system  and  the  attractive  example  of 
his  beautiful  life  sprang  the  Buddhist  faith  which 
Asoka,  the  contemporary  of  the  Greek  Antiochus, 
was  so  largely  instrumental  in  popularising  in 
India.  The  Gautamas  were  displaced  about  B.C.  57 
by  Raja  Dilhu,  and  the  name  of  Delhi  first 
appears  then.  Soon  after,  the  history  of  Delhi 
was  merged  in  that  of  Upper  India  and  with  it 

*  See  p.  318. 


THE    FIRST   SETTLEMENT  247 

passed  successivelyunder  the  dominion  of  Hindus, 
Pathans,  Moguls,  and  Mahrattas  ;  it  was  rebuilt  a 
century  before  the  date  of  our  Alfred,  by  Anang 
Pal  and  again  by  Anang  Pal  11.  at  the  time  of 
William  the  Conqueror. 

Ruined  fortresses  and  tombs  cover  the  whole 
barren  and  treeless  district,  which  spreads  eleven 
miles  southward,  to  the  spot  where  the  famous 
Kutub  Minar  rises — like  JDoulton's  chimney — 
above  the  plain  :  these  ruins  mark  the  different 
sites  of  the  town  during  these  centuries;  and  as  but 
little  kindly  vegetation  covers  their  ruins,  and  no 
grass  grows  on  the  arid,  accumulated  remains  of 
bricks,  stone,  and  cement  which  form  the  soil — the 
plain  is  a  picture  of  desolation.  Any  one  of  these 
monuments  would,  no  doubt,  be  thought  worth  a 
pilgrimage  if  in  a  solitary  position  by  itself,  but 
here,  amongst  so  many  rivals  in  interest,  they  are 
submerged  in  the  crowd,  and  the  whole  produced 
in  our  minds  a  feeling  of  bewildered  perplexity. 
Fortunately,  one  does  not  often  have  to  try 
and  grapple  with  the  remains  of  twenty  cen- 
turies of  civilisation,  concentrated  in  a  space 
eleven  miles  long.  This  plain  is  truly  the  archaeo- 
logical museum  of  India. 

On  the  site  of  the  prehistoric  Indraput,  the 
usurper  Sher  Shah  built  a  fort  known  as  Din 
Panah,  or  the  Purana  Kila  :  he  with  his  successors 
held  Delhi,  during  the  early  years  of  Akbar's  life 
(1540  to  1555),  whilst  the  rulers  of  Babar's  line 
were,  for  a  time,  again  pushed  back  into  Afghanis- 
tan.   Inside  these  picturesque  walls  we  visited 


248      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

Sher  Shah's  very  fine  red  sandstone  Mosque 
(1340) — stern  and  severe,  but  big  and  bold,  with 
huge  arches,  and  sharp,  finely-cut  mouldings  and 
returns  to  the  masonry,  which  looks  as  fresh  as  if 
it  were  only  just  built.  The  struts  supporting  the 
side  bays  of  the  Mosque,  which  are  oblong  in  plan 
and  not  square,  are  curious.  In  the  angle  towers, 
of  much  later  date,  are  pavilions  richly  ornamented 
with  exquisite  designs  in  sandstone,  like  those  at 
Fatehpur  Sikri.  It  was  quite  dark  before  we  got 
homeagain,  and  the  smoke,  mingling  with  the  even- 
ing mist,  was  hung  about  like  a  cloud,  softening  the 
sharp  outlines,  and  filling  the  air  with  the  strange, 
pungent  smell  peculiar  to  an  Indian  evening. 

February  23  was  a  perfect  day,  and  we  made  an 
early  start  for  an  expedition  to  Kutub,  ten  miles 
distant.  The  road  lies  direct  south  from  Delhi, 
beneath  an  avenue  of  feathery  acacias  * — now  only 
partly  out  in  leaf.  The  throng  of  passengers  along 
the  road  is  very  picturesque.  Men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, cows,  camels  and  donkeys,  all  more  or  less 
laden,  drivingor  being  driven  towards  the  city.  No- 
where, except  in  India,  have  I  seen  bullocks,  buffa- 
loes, &c.,  carrying  such  heavy  weights  upon  their 
backs.  They  seem  to  get  along  with  them  very  well, 
however,  and  have  often  their  burden  crowned,  into 
the  bargain,  by  a  human  being  at  the  top.  Some- 
times it  is  only  a  little  child  with  a  rope  in  his  hand 
— attached  to  the  nose  of  the  beast;  he  tugs  at  it 
violently  to  get  the  brute  out  of  the  way  of  a  gharry, 
which  comes  bowling  along,  the  syce  running  in 
front,  crying  '*  Hat-jao,  Hat-jao!  "  at  the  top  of  his 

*  Acacia  arabica. 


KUTUB  MINAR,   DELHI 


250      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

voice,  whisking  a  cloth  which  he  holds  in  his  hand, 
and  giving  a  shove  on  this  side  and  another  on  that, 
to  some  animal  or  man  who  is  too  tardy  in  making 
way.  Besides  these,  there  are  swift-going  ekkas 
hurrying  past  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour — a 
wonder  when  one  sees  the  rats  which  draw  them — 
and  numerous  ponderous  and  creakingbullock-carts 
meandering  slowly  along,  from  side  to  side  of  the 
road,  and  steered,  partly  bythe  cord  attached  to  the 
long-suffering  animals  nose,  partly  by  its  still  more 
long-suffering  tail.  Thetruenative  bullock-cart  is  a 
cumbrous  machine,  with  two  solid  stone  or  wooden 
wheels  ;  but  the  "  hakkery," — a  simple  frame,  put 
together  without  nails — invented,  I  am  told,  fifty 
years  back  by  two  British  officers,  meets  the  native 
requirements,  so  exactly, that  it  has  been  universally 
adopted.  The  pole  is  attached  to  the  axle-tree ;  at  its 
further  end  is  the  yoke,  resting  on  the  bullocks' 
necks,  and  midway  is  a  plank  for  the  driver,  from 
which  he,  sitting  astride,  can  manipulate  the  tail 
and  dig  his  toes  into  the  animal's  sides.  In  the  art 
of  bullock-driving,  one  important  item  appears 
to  lie  in  knowing  the  precise  degree  to  which  it  is 
possible  to  twist  the  long  thin  tail,  without  its  part- 
ing company  with  the  patient  beast,  and  thus  de- 
priving it  of  its  steering  gear:  another  consists  in 
having  at  command  a  large  vocabulary  of  strange 
sounds,  "  pops  like  the  opening  of  a  soda-water 
bottle,  checks,  chirrups,  gurgles,  and  appalling 
roars,"  *  otherwise  the  stolid,  imperturbable  crea- 

*See  an  article  by  Mr.  Aitken  on  "The  Byle,"  in  the  Monthly 
Review,  1905. 


TIMUR  251 

ture  cannot  be  got  under  way,  and  kept  going 
at  all. 

We,  fortunately,  were  not  in  a  bullock-cart,  and, 
after  a  short  four  miles'  drive  we  reached  the  Mau- 
soleum of  Safdar  Jang — an  eighteenth-century 
tomb  of  large  proportions — which  is  hardly  worth 
visiting,  when  there  are  so  many  better  close  by.  It 
resembles  the  Taj,  but  only  very  distantly,  and  has 
stucco  in  place  of  marble.  We  did  not  stop  five 
minutes,  but  hurried  onwards,  crossing  the  plain 
where  Timur,  or  Tamerlane,  the  lame  Mogul  in- 
vader from  Samarcand,  fought  (1398)  the  historic 
battle  against  Muhammad  Tughlak,  Feroz  Shah's 
successor,  which  delivered  Delhi  into  his  hands. 
Timur  gave  the  city  over  to  five  days  of  plunder 
and  massacre,  and  tranquilly  awaited  the  conclu- 
sion ;  he  then  gave  thanks  for  the  victory,  in  Feroz 
Shah's  splendid  Mosque  on  the  Jumna,  and  turned 
his  mind  to  a  thoroughly  systematic  and  intelli- 
gent inspection  of  the  buildings  of  interest  remain- 
ing, recording  them  with  scientific  accuracy  in  his 
Memoirs.  He  soon  returned  whence  he  came, 
leaving  anarchy,  famine  and  pestilence  behind  him, 
but  carrying  with  him  masons  and  sculptors,  to 
erect  a  Mosque  in  Samarcand,  and  an  immense 
horde  of  men,  women  and  children  as  slaves. 

Delhi  was,  subsequently,  more  or  less  deserted 
for  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  years,  during 
which  time  the  Lodi  Sultans  attempted  to  rule  the 
district  from  Agra.  About  the  time,however,  of  our 
Henry  VIII.  Babar — sixth  in  descent  from  Timur 
— came  again  from  the  north  with  a  small,  well- 


252      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

disciplined  force,  and,  gaining  possession  of  Delhi 
at  the  decisive  battle  of  Panipat  (1526),  founded  the 
Mogul  dynasty,  which  lasted  in  unsurpassed  power 
and  splendour  nearly  two  centuries.  Babar  was  an 
admirable  ruler,  and  a  man  with  a  delightful  deli- 
cacy of  taste,  kindness  of  heart,  and  keen  sensi- 
bility to  the  simple  pleasures  of  nature  and  life, 
which  make  him  one  of  the  few  sympathetic  charac- 
ters in  Indian  history.  He  lived  chiefly  at  Agra, 
but  his  son  Humayun  brought  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment again,  for  a  while,  to  Delhi,  where  it  remained 
under  the  Afghan  usurper  Sher  Shah,  until  Babar's 
grandson  Akbar  regained  the  throne  in  1555. 

It  was  not  long  before  we  caught  sight  again 
through  the  tamarind  trees,  which  clustered  round 
a  village,  of  the  great  Kutub  Minar,  five  miles 
ahead  in  the  distance.  It  is  rather  a  libel  to  liken 
it  to  Doulton's  chimney,  but,  at  first  sight,  it  cer- 
tainly suggests  it.  On  closer  acquaintance  it  grew 
upon  us,  and  it  is,  without  doubt,  a  most  original 
building — a  tower  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
feet  high,  in  five  diminishing  storeys — with  many 
points  of  beauty:  my  companion  wished  to  knock 
off  the  two  top  storeys,  I  think  probably  rightly,  as 
it  turns  out  that  the  original  designers  had  nothing 
to  do  with  them,  and  they  were  the  work  of  Feroz 
Shah  Tughlak,  the  great  restorer,  in  1368.  The 
Kutub  stands  on  a  gentle  slope,  in  a  beautifully 
shady  oasis  of  thick  groves  of  fine  trees,  contrast- 
ing most  gratefully  with  the  prevalent  dark  red  hue 
of  the  plain  which  they  overlook.  We  were  very 
glad  to  reach  this  cool  and  peaceful  spot,  and  or- 


THE   IRON  PILLAR  OF  RAJA  DHAVA  253 

dered  our  lunch,  at  the  Dak  bungalow,  before  turn- 
ing to  examine  the  groups  of  remarkable  buildings, 
which  rise  from  amidst  pomegranate  and  jasmine 
bushes,  round  the  base  of  the  great  tower. 

We  are  here  in  the  midst  of  the  memorials  of  the 
so-called  Pathan  conquerors,  who  first  brought 
Mohammedanism  to  India,  and  here  was  the  seat 
of  empire  from  1191,  when  Shahab-ud-din,  or 
Mahmud  of  Ghor,  and  his  viceroy,  Kutab-ud-din, 
possessed  themselves  of  the  capital  of  the  cele- 
brated Prithvi  Raja  (the  Rajput  ruler  of  Ajmere 
and  Delhi,  and  the  last  champion  of  Hindu  inde- 
pendence in  Upper  India).  It  remained  the  capital 
until  the  time  of  Ala-ud-din  Khilji,  the  parricide, 
who  died  (13 15),  leaving  his  great  minaret  un- 
finished. But,  in  the  midst  of  these  traces  of  the 
first  Mohammedan  rulers  of  India,  stands  the  won- 
derful iron  pillar  of  Raja  Dhava — second  or  third 
century  a.d. — which  no  European  foundry  would 
have  been  able  to  produce  till  about  fifty  years  ago. 
It  supported,  probably,  an  emblem  of  Vishnu,  and 
its  deeply-cut  Sanscrit  inscription  gives  the  earliest 
authentic  information  about  primitive  Delhi. 

The  Ghazni  dynasty, — to  whose  empire  in 
Khorasan  Mahmud  of  Ghor  had  succeeded, — not 
infrequently  raised  minars  or  towers  of  victory  on 
the  sites  of  their  battlefields :  they  are  found  in 
Ghazni,  and  as  far  west  as  the  roots  of  the 
Caucasus — and  to  this  class  of  tower  the  Kutub 
Minar  evidently  belongs.  It  interested  me  very 
much:  to  begin  with,  no  European  monument  rises 
sheer,  to  its  full  height,  in  such  isolated  grandeur; 


254      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

it  differs  in  shape,  design,  and  detail  from  any  other 
tower  I  had  ever  seen,  and  its  surface  is  most  curi- 
ously covered  with  perpendicular,  angular,  and 
semi-circular  flutings  in  the  red  sandstone  of 
which  it  is  built.  The  origin  of  these  angular  flut- 
ings seems  unknown,  but  whether  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  peculiar  form  of  the  Ghazni  Minars  in 
Khorasan,  or  to  be  traced  to  the  starlike  shape 
of  some  Jain  monuments,  they  certainly  produce 
a  very  beautiful  effect.  Each  storey,  covered  alter- 
nately with  these  round  and  angular  flutings,  is 
surrounded  by  a  broad  band  of  Arabic  inscription, 
supporting  a  massive  balcony,  which  stands  out  in 
strong  relief  from  the  tower.'**' 

Close  to,  in  fact  surrounding,  the  Kutub  is  a 
very  interesting  Mosque  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
but  it  consists,  almost  entirely,  of  earlier  Hindu 
workmanship,  and  is  greatly  made  up  of  the  pre- 
existing Jain  temple,  which  the  builders  of  the 
Mosque  used  as  a  quarry,  just  as  the  church  builders 
at  Avalon  availed  themselves  of  the  columns  and 
ornaments  of  the  old  Roman  buildings,  in  their 
neighbourhood.  It  consists  of  two  enclosures.  The 
larger  and  outer  one — built  after  the  inner — con- 
tains the  Kutub,  and  is  entered  by  a  splendid  gate- 
way, built  by  Ala-ud-din,  of  red  sandstone  relieved 
with  bands  and  stripes  of  white  marble,  and  covered 
with  the  most  delicate  designs — arabesques  and 
diaper  patterns — carved  and  inlaid,  much  like  those 

*  The  lowest  storey  dates  from  1 190,  the  two  next  bear  the 
name  of  Altamsh  (121 1-36),  and  the  upper  part  is  of  the  time  of 
Firoz  Shah  Tughlak  (1351-91). 


HINDU    ARCHES  255 

at  Fatehpur  Sikri,  though  considerably  earlier 
in  date.  The  inner  enclosure  forms  the  court  in 
front  of  the  Mosque  proper,  and  is  surrounded  by 
a  cloister  with  portals  and  facades  of  incomparable 
richness,  supported  by  rows  of  Hindu  columns, 
profusely  and  wonderfully  sculptured  with  flowers, 
vases,  and  mythological  scenes;  they  are  placed  in 
pairs,  one  above  the  other,  to  give  the  requisite 
height.  The  Mosque  proper  is  built  of  the  same 
richly  carved  materials,  once  covered  with  stucco 
and  whitewash  for  fear  of  offence  to  the  eyes  of 
the  faithful;  it  is  low  and  insignificant  in  compari- 
son with  the  enormous  screen  of  pointed  arches 
which  stands  in  front  of  it,  but  seems  to  have  fol- 
lowed the  fashion  of  the  buildings  of  the  date  of 
the  Kalan  Musjid,  and  had  no  minaret.  These 
arches,  though  designed  by  the  Mohammedans, 
show  by  internal  evidence,  on  closer  inspection, 
that  they  were  of  Hindu  workmanship  :  they  are 
not  true  arches  at  all,  and  were  probably  built  on 
the  same  plan  as  the  Hindu  domes,  by  native 
workmen  who  did  not  understand  the  construction 
of  the  arch.  They  are  carried  up  in  horizontal 
courses  as  far  as  possible,  and  then  closed  by  long 
slabs  meeting  above.  The  arches,  in  fact,  could 
never  bear  any  weight  upon  them  ;  but  this  they 
were  evidently  not  intended  to  do,  for  they  pro- 
ject high  above  the  Mosque  proper,  showing  day- 
light between  its  top  and  the  top  of  the  arch.  At 
the  north-west  corner,  outside  the  Mosque,  is  the 
beautiful  tomb  of  Altamsh  (1235),  the  earliest 
Mohammedan  tomb  in  India. 


256      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF   DELHI 

We  lunched  near  the  little  dak  bungalow,  where 
those  may  stop  who  get  permission  from  the 
Superintendent  of  Police  in  Delhi  :  not  far  off  is  a 
deep  well,  with  a  drop  of  sixty  feet  and  a  depth  of 
twenty  feet  of  water.  Into  this,  with  the  prospect 
of  gain,  the  natives  delight  to  jump  :  four  of  them 
were  stripped  and  all  ready  for  us  on  our  arrival, 
so  we  allowed  them  to  go  through  their  perform- 
ance, and  then  we  were  let  in  for  eight  annas 
apiece,  which  they  demanded — strengthening  their 
claim  irrefutably  by  declaring  that  **  the  Guide  book 
says  so  !  "  The  well  is  narrow,  and  too  vigorous  a 
leap  forward  would  throw  the  creature  against  the 
opposite  wall,  where  he  would  probably  be  dashed 
to  pieces.  But  they  never  fail  to  get  down  feet 
foremost,  and  walk  up  again  by  a  staircase  from 
the  surface  of  the  water  shivering,  however 
hot  the  day,  to  intensify  one's  feelings  of  com- 
passion. 

Early  in  the  afternoon,  we  left  the  cool  oasis  and 
started  on  our  way  back  by  Tughlakabad,  a  grand 
old  fortress,  which  Tughlak  Shah  built  in  1321, 
when  the  restlessness,  so  usual  to  Indian  rulers, 
drove  him  from  the  Kutub  at  the  foot  of  the  hills, 
to  build  a  capital  of  his  own,  four  miles  to  the 
east  nearer  the  Jumna.  It  stands  high,  on  a  chain 
of  rocks,  and  looked  over  an  artificial  lake,  formed 
by  a  great  stone  wall  built  across  a  ravine  in  the 
hills  ;  this  is  now  dry,  except  in  the  rainy  sea- 
son. Huge  and  imposing  round  towers,  of  a  very 
hard,  bluish  crystalline  rock,  rise  from  the  base  of 
the  hill,  to  support  the  cyclopean  walls,  and  give 


THE  TOMB  OF  TUGHLAK  SHAH 

•'  This  tomb  forms  the  nucleus  of  a  miniature  fortress 
in  the  centre  of  a  small  lake,  and  is  approached  by  a 
low  causeway  raised  on  arches.  Here  repose  the 
bones  of  two  of  the  warrior  kings  of  the  Tughlak  line. 
The  walls  which  enclose  them  are  of  massive  marble 
and  red  sandstone  masonry  and  are  surmounted  by  a 
hite  marble  dome," 


TUGHLAKABAD  257 

a  look  of  severe  grandeur  to  the  long  line  of 
fortifications.  We  were  reminded  of  some  great 
solid  Etruscan,  or  Egyptian  building.  Although 
it  was  deserted  forty  days  after  Tughlak  Shah 
died,  no  vegetation  blurs  the  outline  of  the  sloping 
turrets,  thick  walls  and  narrow  doorways,  and 
enough  remains  of  its  four-mile  circumference  and 
fifty-two  gates  to  show  what  a  formidable  strong- 
hold it  formed  ;  it  was  indeed,  as  Mr.  William 
Finch  said  of  it  in  1610 — "  a  thing  of  surpassing 
glory  and  stateliness." 

A  stone  causeway,  raised  on  low  arches,  stretches 
out  into  the  lake,  and  at  the  end  of  it  is  a  curious 
enclosure  surrounded  by  very  massive  walls,  in 
the  form  of  an  irregular  pentagon,  sloping  inwards 
from  the  base,  in  the  peculiar  style  of  the  Tughlak 
Sultans.  In  the  centre  of  this  small  fortress,  which 
is  in  a  far  better  state  of  preservation  than  the 
castle,  stands  the  fit  and  appropriate  tomb  of  two 
of  the  warrior  kings  of  the  Tughlak  line.  This 
building,  of  white  marble  and  red  sandstone,  sur- 
mounted by  a  white  marble  dome,  is  the  tomb 
where  the  generous  benefactor  and  restorer  Firoz 
Shah  Tughlak, — who  endeavoured  so  nobly  to 
repair  the  ravages  of  time  and  the  results  of  past 
tyranny, — placed  the  signed  deeds  of  full  pardon 
w^hich,  with  infinite  pains,  he  had  obtained  from 
all  those  whom  his  brilliantly  clever,  but  probably 
slightly  deranged,  predecessor  had  injured.  There 
is  something  distinctive  in  the  character  of  this 
short  line  of  Tughlak  Sultans  (1321-1390),  and 
their  refined,  severe  taste  and  pitiless  sternness 


258      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

appear  to  have  stamped  themselves  on  the  titanic 
monuments  of  their  time. 

Here  we  joined,  and  drove  back  by,  the  Muttra 
road.  In  this  district,  amongst  the  tombs  and  the 
ruins  of  bygone  cities,  there  are  little  communities 
of  low  caste  Christians,  singing  their  curious  songs 
as  they  lead  their  flocks  and  herds  to  graze,  on  the 
scant  herbage. 

The  Cambridge  Mission  to  Delhi — though 
chiefly  devoted  to  work  among  the  educated 
classes  in  the  city,  where  they  have  a  complete 
ladder  of  education — is  responsible  for  this  work 
too,  and  they  perambulate  the  villages  within  a  circle 
of  twenty  miles,  preaching,  teaching,  catechising 
and  conversing. 

The  Delhi  Brotherhood  was  founded,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  strong  appeal  made  by  Sir  Bartle  Frere 
to  the  University,  to  send  men  to  carry  on  the  work 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Winter  in  Delhi.  Sir  Bartle  Frere 
had  visited  Delhi,  with  the  Prince  of  Wales  in 
1876,  and  wrote  of  these  devoted  people  that  they 
were  both  much  overtaxed.  Mr.  Winter  was  a  man 
of  great  powers  of  organisation,  energy,  and  enthu- 
siasm, who  had  laboured  here  for  eleven  years 
without  rest,  and  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
leave  till  it  was  possible  to  supply  his  place.  Sir 
Bartle  Frere  wrote,  "  I  am  much  mistaken  if  you 
have  not  a  larger  Tinnevelly  at  Delhi  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years,  but  they  require  more  money  and 
more  men.  Delhi  seems  quite  one  of  the  most 
hopeful  openings  I  have  seen."  Mr.  Bickersteth 
(afterwards  Bishop  of  Japan)  responded  to  this 


THE    DELHI    BROTHERHOOD        259 

appeal, and  founded  the  Delhi  Brotherhood  in  1878 
with  the  support  of  the  saintly  and  learned  Bishop 
French  of  Lahore,  who  for  his  knowledge  of  native 
dialects  was  known  as  the  *'  Padre  with  seven 
tongues."  Since  then,  the  work  has  expanded  under 
the  inspiring  leadership  of  Mr.  Lefroy  and  Mr. 
Allnutt,and  has  numbered  several  learned  Oriental 
scholars  amongst  its  members,  men  able  to  meet 
Brahman  and  Moolvi  on  their  own  ground  and  to 
showthemselves  better  acquainted,  even  than  they, 
with  the  Vedas  and  Koran.  One  of  the  great  desires 
of  Bishop  French  was  to  avoid  anglicising  the 
native  convert,  and  encouraging  him  to  depend  too 
much  on  his  Western  teacher  ;  he  therefore  en- 
couraged peripatetic  methods  of  evangelisation. 
He  combined  this  method  with  colleges,  in  which 
he  hoped  native  boys  might  be  trained  to  be- 
come Christian  teachers ;  and  he  looked  forward 
to  the  day  when  colleges,  such  as  those  of  the 
Missions  at  Delhi,  Agra  and  Lahore,  by  mastering 
methods  of  grappling  with  Oriental  subtleties  of 
thought,  would  build  up  a  truly  native  Church  in 
India,  and  rival  the  ancient  Christian  schools  of 
Alexandria  and  Edessa. 

The  Cambridge  Brotherhood  hold,  that  the  pro- 
gress of  Christianity  in  India  has  been  terribly  hin- 
dered by  the  strongly  marked  and  rather  self- 
assertive  individuality  of  the  English  character, 
which  finds  solidarity  of  life  and  work  a  diffi- 
culty ;  and  that,  whereas  the  old  faiths  of  India  have 
pre-eminently  asserted  the  principle  of  brotherhood, 
the  Christian  religion  had  been,  for  a  long  period. 


26o      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

presented  to  the  natives  of  India  as  concerning  the 
individual  relation  of  the  separate  soul  to  God 
almost  exclusively,  whilst  the  complement  to  this 
essential  foundation, — the  unityof  the  whole  as  one 
body  in  Christ, — had  hardly  been  brought  home  to 
them  at  all.  They  believe  that  the  marvellous  soli- 
darity of  native  life,  which  is  one  of  its  most 
marked  characteristics,  is  not  all  evil,  and  that  it 
behoves  the  missionary  to  show,  in  deed  as  well  as 
word,  that  that  principle  is,  in  the  highest  degree, 
congenial  to  the  faith  of  Christ.  They  hold, 
therefore,  that  the  object-lesson  of  a  corporate  life, 
based  on  pure  religious  principle,  such  as  a 
Brotherhood  presents,  is  of  the  utmost  value,  in 
the  task  of  commending  to  the  Hindu  mind  a  truly 
catholic  and  not  exclusively  English,  or  even  Euro- 
pean type  of  Christianity.  The  characteristic  and 
impressive  note  of  the  Delhi  Mission  seems  to  be 
its  complete  organisation  of  active  work.  It  dis- 
covers various  practical  advantages  arisingfrom  the 
Brotherhood  life — such  as  economy;  the  absenceof 
isolation,  which  is  one  of  the  greatest  trials  of  the 
ordinary  missionary  ;  and  the  continuity  of  work, 
resulting  from  the  fact  that,  the  methods  of  the  older 
and  more  experienced  men  can  be  learned,  by  those 
working  with  them,  before  they  are  called  away. 

Both  this,  and  the  road  we  went  out  by,  are  lined 
in  places  with  tombs  of  all  descriptions,  some 
covered  by  delicate  bright  coloured  tiles.  The 
number  of  fine  tombs  which  we  met  with  in  India 
rather  perplexed  us,  but,  to  any  one  with  a  know- 
ledge of  the  history  of  Mogul  courts,  the  explana- 


NOBILITY   OF    OFFICE  261 

tion  is  not  far  to  seek.  Amongst  the  Moguls  there 
were  no  noble  families:  the  King  was  the  proprietor 
of  all  land  and  the  source  of  all  honour.  The  saying 
of  the  Emperor  Paul  of  Russia,  "the  only  man 
noble  in  my  dominions  is  the  man  to  whom  I  speak, 
for  the  time  that  I  speak  to  him,"  expresses  pre- 
cisely the  attitude  of  a  Mogul  Emperor  to  his  own 
courtiers  and  high  officers  ;  and  they  succeeded  in 
breaking  up,  in  India,  all  the  ancient  aristocracy  ex- 
cept that  of  the  Rajpoots.  The  courtiers  and  emirs 
were  usually  adventurers  from  outside,  or  slaves, 
and  they  formed  simply  a  nobility  of  office  which 
never  succeeded  in  founding  a  family,  and  never 
built  a  spacious  palace.  They  lived  in  temporary 
habitations,  and  spent  much  of  their  time  in  the 
Emperor's  palace  :  he  was  their  heir,  and  had  no 
scruple  in  bestowing  their  possessions  on  their  suc- 
cessor in  office,  as  soon  as  they  died,  and  transferring 
their  wealth  to  his  own  coffers.  Their  families  were, 
at  once,  turned  out  to  shift  for  themselves,  and  their 
sons  had  to  begin  de  novo.  Consequently,  they  left 
nothing  to  commemorate  their  name, unless  it  were 
a  bridge  or  a  canal  built  for  the  public  good,  or  a 
college,  except  the  tombs  which  meet  our  view  on 
every  side. 

We  stopped  en  route  at  the  Tomb  of  Akbar's 
father,  Humayun,  the  first  great  Mogul  building 
in  India  and  probably  the  finest.  It  is  certainly  the 
most  beautiful  tomb  near  Delhi,  and  it  looked  par- 
ticularly solemn  and  grand  as  we  saw  it,  just  after 
thesun  had  set.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  thecon- 
tour  of  the  dome  is  finer  than  that  of  the  Taj  where 


262      NEIGHBOURHOOD    OF    DELHI 

bulbousness  hasalready  become  rather  marked.  The 
design  of  the  building  is  peculiar.  A  white  marble 
dome  rises  above  the  central  chamber,  which  is 
an  irregular  octagon,  with  four  irregular  octagons 
at  alternate  sides,  surrounding  it,  and  between 
them  small  square  or  oblong  chambers  with  deep 
portals  in  each.  The  body  of  the  building  is  of 
red  sandstone  and  white  marble,  and  stands,  in 
the  centre  of  a  garden,  on  the  top  of  a  square 
platform,  looking  down  on  the  surrounding  trees, 
and,  away  north,  to  the  rugged 
walls  of  Indraput.  The  garden 
is  surrounded  by  walls,  entered 
by  stately  gateways.  It  was  to 
this  building  that  Hodson,  of 
"  Hodson's  Horse,"  came,  in 
search  of  the  last  King  of 
Delhi,  and  with  a  small  band 
of  horse  brought  him  away,  in  the  teeth  of  hundreds 
of  the  enemy.  He  still  further  distinguished  him- 
self by  returning  for  the  two  sons  of  the  King,  and 
having  led  them  out  of  their  hiding-place,  shot 
them  with  his  own  hand.  His  action  was  much 
criticised,  but  acts  of  boldness  such  as  this  seem 
to  have  staggered  and  paralysed  the  natives. 

On  leaving  Humayun's  tomb  it  was  growing  so 
dark  we  were  obliged  to  give  up  going  to  see  that 
of  Nizam-ud-din.  And  next  day  we  left  Delhi. 

It  had  been  very  interesting  to  trace  the  growth 
of  the  tomb  idea,  which  culminates  in  the  Agra 
Taj,  but  one  can  have  too  much  of  everything,  and 
I  think  we  had  of  sightseeing  at  Delhi.   Neverthe- 


THE    DARGAH    OF   NIZAM-UD-DIN     263 

less,  our  consciences  brought  us  back  again,  for  a 
night,  from  Amballa,  to  see  the  Dargah  of  Nizam- 
ud-din.  We  had  to  leave  again  by  a  train  (southward 
bound)  at  eleven,  so  we  made  an  early  start,  and  were 
on  the  road  at  about  a  quarter  to  eight.  The  same 
picturesque  throng  that  we  had  seen  on  the  former 
occasion,  when  we  drove  out  early  from  Delhi — or, 
at  any  rate,  a  very  similar  one — met  us  as  we  left 
the  outer  gates,butwith  the  addition  of  amysterious 
mist,  betokening  heat,  and  a  string  of  camel-carts, 
like  huge  cages,  full  of  natives,  which  we  passed 
just  beyond  the  walls. 

Our  carriage  drew  up,  amongst  ruins,  before  a 
small  archway,  and  the  path,  which  we  followed, 
led  us  round  a  sacred  baoli  or  tank,  overshadowed 
by  high  walls.  On  the  west  side  seventy  feet  above 
the  water,  was  a  dome,  from  which  naked  natives 
wanted  us  to  see  them  jump.  We  did  not  give 
them  any  encouragement,  but  passed  on,  through 
a  winding  passage,  into  a  beautiful  littlecourtyard ; 
this  is  the  first  of  two,  forming  the  burying-ground 
of  many  great  and  holy  people,  grouped  around 
the  Dargah  of  Sheik  Nizam-ud-din,  which,  like  the 
shrines  of  the  other  three  great  Chishti  saints,  is 
reverenced  by  Mohammedans  all  over  India.  He 
was  the  last  of  the  line,  and  appears  to  have  settled 
in  Delhi  about  1265,  and  to  have  been  a  great  and 
powerful  personage,  playing  an  important  part  in 
the  political  history  of  his  time.  He  was  a  great 
ally  of  Ala-ud-din  Khilji,  the  parricide  Sultan,  and 
has,  the  perhaps  undeserved,  reputation  of  having 
been  closely  connected  with  the  Thugs,  who  have 


264      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

always  honoured  him,  as  one  of  the  lights  of  the 
profession.  With  Tughlak  Shah,  he  seems  to  have 
been  at  cross  purposes,  and  the  tradition  goes  that 
they  interfered  with  each  other's  building  opera- 
tions and  showered  on  them  mutual  recriminations 
and  curses. 

Nizam-ud-din  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-two, 
the  year  before  his  opponent,  who  was  murdered 
in  1325.  His  devoted  friend  and  follower,  Khusru, 
the  renowned  poet  of  Tughlak's  Court, — whose 
songs  have  not  been  forgotten  by  the  people  through 
the  five  hundred  years  which  have  passed  by, — 
refused  to  survive  him,  and  died  soon  after;  he 
lies  buried  within  the  same  enclosure.  This  pecu- 
liarly Oriental  habit  of  dying  at  will — with  no  ap- 
parent physical  cause  except  that  of  refusing  to 
take  food — has  often  been  a  real  difficulty  to  the 
English  Government.  Instances  are  well  known  in 
which  individuals,  or,  in  some  cases,  groups  of 
people,  have  allowed  themselves  to  die,  simply  as  a 
protest  against  something  they  objected  to:  it  is 
usually  as  an  act  of  impotent  revenge  and  in  order 
to  heap  obloquy  on  the  man  who  drove  them  to  it. 
Political  prisoners,  in  Russian  prisons,  Leo  Deutsch 
says,  will  revenge  themselves  on  the  officials  in 
much thesamemanner.  "Sitting dharna,"or taking 
up  a  position  at  a  man's  gateway,  and  refusing  to 
take  food,  in  order  to  enforce  compliance  with 
some  demand,  is  now  a  criminal  offence  in  India. 
Babar  appears  to  have  ended  his  days  in  some- 
thing of  the  same  manner  as  Khusru  :  he  devoted 
his  life  to  save  that  of  his  sick  son, — the  son  re- 
covered, and  Babar  died. 


THE   TOMB   OF   JEHANIRA  265 

Here  also  lies  Jehanira,  the  devoted  companion 
of  Shah  Jehan's  captivity  in  Agra  Fort.  She  sur- 
vived her  father  for  sixteen  years,  and  was  said  to 
be  a  great  benefactress  of  the  poor  and  religious 
men,  and  to  have  died  with  the  reputation  of  a 
saint,  which, — though  the  part  of  the  devil's  advo- 
cate was  not  left  out,  and  there  are  two  versions 
of  her  story, — Bishop  Heber  seems  inclined  to 
allow  her.  Her  tombstone  consists  of  a  white 
marble  slab,  carved  with  flowers,  and  hollowed 
out,  so  as  to  contain  earth,  on  which  grows  fresh 
green  grass,  in  obedience  to  her  wish  that  only 
things  frail  and  evanescent  should  mark  her  last 
resting-place :  the  epitaph  inscribed  on  the  head- 
stone is  said  to  have  been  composed  by  herself : 
— "  Let  green  grass  only  conceal  my  grave,  grass 
is  the  best  covering  for  the  grave  of  the  meek,  the 
humble,  transitory  Jehanira,  the  disciple  of  the 
holy  men  of  Chisht." 

On  the  right,  on  entering  the  first  courtyard 
there  is  a  Mosque,  with  a  very  fine  domed  ceiling 
— rising,  before  the  dome  is  commenced,  from  a 
square  to  an  octagon  and  from  that  to  a  sixteen- 
sided  figure.  To  the  east  is  an  assembly  hall  of 
white  marble,  with  fine  lattice  screens  (restored). 
Two  of  the  tombs  have  beautiful  white  marble 
doors,  elaborately  ornamented  in  low  relief. 

The  great  tombs  of  Nizam-ud-din  and  of  Khusru 
form  two  separate  buildings,  of  white  marble 
encased  in  lattice  screens  of  the  most  exquisite 
carved  work.  The  shrines  themselves  are  covered 
with  bright  silk  palls  with  canopies  over  them  and 


266      NEIGHBOURHOOD   OF    DELHI 

ostrich  eggs  and  gewgaws  hang  from  the  canopies. 
All  important  Moslem  tombs  have,  besides  the 
Mosque,  an  endowed  college  of  Moolahs  attached  : 
they  say  prayers  at  stated  times,  read  the  Koran 
over  the  grave  twice  a  day,  and  spend  the  intervals 
in  teaching  the  youth  of  the  neighbourhood  to 
read  the  Koran  and  hate  the  unbeliever.  The  result 
is,  no  doubt,  not  very  conducive  to  living  peaceably 
with  your  neighbour,  but  the  process  pleases  the 
eye.  Picturesque  groups  of  figures  sit  about  on 
the  marble  pavement.  Here  is  a  very  small  boy 
being  taught  to  read  out  of  a  great  tome ;  there  a 
venerable  patriarch  is  instructing  a  lad  out  of  the 
Koran  ;  and  in  another  part  a  young  man  is  care- 
fully copying  a  manuscript,  with  his  "  style  " — the 
floor  forming  his  desk,  and  he  laboriously  leaning 
over  and  slowly  drawing  out  the  letters. 

Besides  the  large  tomb,  there  are  innumerable 
small  ones,  many  of  which  would  be  well  worth 
studying  anywhere  else.  Some  of  these  are  over- 
hung by  great  shady  trees,  and  in  the  shady  or 
sheltered  nooks  sit  many  old  men,  in  various 
stages  of  decrepitude.  They,  and  .the  cats,  which 
seemed  to  haunt  the  place,  reminded  me  of  the 
Algerian  marabouts,  where  the  old  people,  who 
have  come  to  end  their  days  in  the  holy  precincts, 
sit  hugging  cats  to  keep  them  warm.  The  whole 
group  is  wonderfully  beautiful,  and  the  place  is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  attractive  near  Delhi  ; 
the  quiet  life  about  it  adds  an  indescribable  charm 
not  easily  forgotten. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
AMBALLA: A  CANTONMENT 

On  a  bright,  but  sharply  fresh,  early  morning  at 
the  end  of  February,  we  reached  Amballa — after  a 
night  journey  from  Delhi — to  pay  a  visit  to  Mr. 
Leslie  Smith,  the  Divisional  Judge  of  the  district. 
He  met  us  at  the  station  and  drove  us  up  to  his 
house,  two  miles  off,  at  the  further  side  of  the  can- 
tonment. It  was  a  pleasant  drive  under  avenues 
of  fine  peepul  trees,  and  along  straight  level  roads 
flanked  on  either  side  by  large  shady  compounds 
enclosing — within  low,  whitewashed  walls  and  rose 
hedges — trim  deep-roofed  bungalows,  festooned 
with  masses  of  crimson  bougainvillea  and  of  big- 
nonia  bright  with  orange-coloured  flowers.  In  the 
distance  the  view,  northwards  across  the  plain, 
was  bounded  by  blue  mountains  topped  by  faint 
indications  of  glorious  snowy  Himalayas.  Some  of 
these  giant  peaks,  fading  into  the  delicate  blue  sky, 
beyond  Simla,  must  be  fully  two  hundred  miles 
away. 

Amballa  is  one  of  the  proverbially  happy  places 
without  a  history ;  a  town  has  only  existed  here 
since  the  comparatively  late  date  of  1400,  and 
nothing  of  any  importance  is  recorded  of  it  till  the 


268  AMBALLA 

district  came  into  the  hands  of  the  British  in  1823. 
Then,  it  was  chosen  as  the  station  for  the  political 
agent  of  the  province,  and  in  1843  a  cantonment 
was  established  a  few  miles  south  of  the  now  well- 
nigh  vanished  unwalled  old  town.  It  is  the  head- 
quarters of  a  district  lying  between  the  Sutlej  and 
the  Jumna — the  Himalayas  and  the  native  state  of 
Patiala — which  is  the  sacred  land  of  the  misty  days 
of  Hindu  epic  romance  and  the  last  home  of  the 
five  demi-god  brothers,  the  Pandavas,  before  they 
left  the  plains  to  bury  themselves  in  some  unknown 
spot  amongst  the  eternal  snows  of  the  Himalayas. 
There  is,  however,  little  trace  of  mystery  or  poetry 
in  the  crisp,  brisk  military  atmosphere  of  the  busy 
little  town:  it  lies  on  the  Grand  Trunk  road,  that 
most  fascinating  of  highways — the  "broad  smiling 
river  of  life"  with  new  people  and  new  sights  at 
every  stride,  endeared  to  us  all  by  the  days  spent 
on  it  by  Kim,  the  "  little  friend  of  all  the  world  " 
and  his  Lama.  Its  double  avenue  runs  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles  across  India,  and  Amballa  is  close  to 
the  place  where  the  road  to  Simla  and  the  Hill 
stations  turns  off,  and  has  long  been  a  centre  of 
supply  for  the  Europeans  up  there.  It  is  in  a  capi- 
tally healthy  situation,  and  though  no  doubt  very 
trying  in  the  hot  weather,  it  was  fresh  enough  then. 
The  temperature  was  cooler  than  anything  we  had 
hitherto  enjoyed  in  India :  experience  warned  us 
that  it  would  be  considered  rather  tactless  to  con- 
gratulate any  of  our  friends  in  India  on  the  climate 
of  the  place  they  lived  in,  but  it  was  undeniable 
that  a  good  deal  of  rain  had  fallen  here,  whereas 


AN  ATTRACTIVE    STATION 


269 


we  had  met  with  none  elsewhere,  and  that  there 
really  were  refreshing  indications  of  green  grass. 
The  neighbourhood  of  the  hills,  with  their  snow 
and  roaring  torrents,  gives  to  the  atmosphere  a 
dampness  that  lends  beauty  to  the  landscape  ;  and 


'.  CANTONMENT 


the  surrounding  district  is  well  wooded  with  fine 
dark  green  groves  of  mango,  with  sissoos,  mul- 
berry, banyan,  and  the  ubiquitous  peepul  tree. 

The  attraction  of  this  station  is  that  it  is  so  close 
to  the  hills  that  wives  and  children  can  easily 
escape,  for  the  hot  weather,  to  Kasauli,  six  thousand 
feet  above  the  plains,  and  overlooking  the  Kalka 
valley,  where,  when  the  railway  then  projected  was 
opened,  a  run  of  three  hours  would  enable  the  men 


270  AMBALLA 

to  join  them  for  the  week  end.  At  Kalka  the  Simla 
people  used,  in  old  days,  having  passed  the  ford 
over  the  Ghaggur  river  half-way,  to  leave  their  dak 
gharry  from  Amballa  and  take  to  the  tonga.  In 
flood-time  that  ford  often  involved  considerable 
delay  for  passengers,  and  the  mails  were  carried 
over  by  an  elephant.  All  these  romantic  incidents 
have  faded  into  the  past  now,  and  by  a  light  rail- 


FROM  THE   MAIDAN 


way  to  Simla  one  is  very  prosaically  '*  wheeled  to 
reach  the  eagles'  haunt  "  in  no  time. 

Amballa  is  said  to  be  a  very  good  specimen  of 
an  English  cantonment :  at  the  time  of  our  visit 
there  were  five  thousand  troops  there,  including  the 
yth  Dragoon  Guards,  2nd  Battalion  Queen's  West 
Surrey,  14th  West  Yorks,  King's  Own  Scottish 
Borderers,  2nd  Battery  Royal  Horse  Artillery, 
2nd  Mounted  Battery  (partly  native),  loth  Bengal 
Lancers,  and  the  23rd  Pioneers.  It  stretches  out  on 
a  vast  flat  plain  about  seventy  miles  south  of  the 
first  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  and  is  planned  upon 
rectangular  roads.  The  central  part  is  occupied  by 
the  bungalows  of  the  officers,  the  shops,  the  club, 
and  the  church,  all  surrounded  by  large  com- 
pounds. To  the  West  are  rows  of  barrack  buildings 
separated  from  the  centre  by  small  maidans — flat 


.^^ 


272  AMBALLA 

open  commons,  green  in  favourable  circumstances 
and  dotted  with  trees — and  beyond  are  much  larger 
open  spaces  stretching  for  miles  around  the  can- 
tonment. These  form  parade-grounds,  grounds  for 
military  manoeuvres,  and  are  available  for  polo  and 
cricket.  To  the  North  is  a  golf  links,  and  there, 
quite  at  the  extremity  of  the  cantonment  near  the 
gymkana  or  recreation-ground,  is  Paget  Park, 
where  was  our  host's  house.  It  is  attached  to  the 
post  which  he  holds,  and  is  said  to  be  one  of  the 
best  in  Amballa  and  the  only  civilian's  house  in 
the  military  lines,  the  civil  lines  being  away  to  the 
West.  I  understand  it  was  rather  a  Naboth's  vine- 
yard and  regarded  with  covetous  eyes  by  the 
general  commanding  the  district.  It  stands  in  a 
good  garden  with  the  usual  little  water-channels 
surrounding  theflower  beds;  they  are  filled  from  the 
droning  Persian  wheel,  where  a  drowsy  boy,  curled 
up  behind  the  patient  oxen,  sends  them  circling 
round  the  well,  and  turning  runnels  of  clear  water  to 
freshen  the  lemon  and  rose  bushes  ;  the  garden  in 
their  season  abounds  in  roses,  but  the  time  of  roses 
is  not  yet.  Close  by  is  a  tank  with  a  picturesque 
temple,  where  I  sketched  ;  this  is  one  of  the  few 
remaining  fragments  of  old  Amballa,  and  I  had  to 
make  the  most  of  it,  and  of  some  wonderfully  big 
banyan  trees,  and  another  tank,  surrounded  by 
ruined  temples.  I  was  also  fortunate  enough  to 
secure,  for  the  morning,  a  splendid  camel  sow^arof 
the  loth  Bengal  Lancers,  who  came  and  sat  to  me 
on  his  camel,  in  its  scarlet  Marie  Stuart  cap  and 
saddle-cloth,  outside  the  verandah  of  my  bedroom. 


iiiC 


A  CAMEL  SOWAR  OF  THE  TENTH 

BENGAL  LANCERS         c   in 

"  The  men  of  the  loth  Bengal  Lancers  are  mostly 
Sikhs  ;  they  have  blue  and  red  lance-pennons,  blue 
kurta  or  long  coat,  white  breeches,  red  cummerbund, 
and  blue  cone-shaped  turban.  An  obliging  Moonshee 
glorified  my  sketch  by  writing  Shams  ud-din  Khan's 
name  and  status  in  splendid  picturesque  characters 
below  it." 


/  ^  ^ ^^  ''7^-<Ly  ^'o'^' ' 


THE   TOUT 


273 


Unfortunately  our  conversation  was  limited,  but  an 
obliging  Moonshee  glorified  my  sketch  by  writing 
Shams  ud-din  Khan's  name  and  status  in  splendid 
picturesque  characters  below  it. 

It  was  a  rest  to  be  free  from  that  most  imperti- 
nent, persistent  individual,  the  Delhi  tout,  who 
had  been  boring  us  to  death  for  the  last  few  days, 
His  name  is  legion,  he  lay  in  wait  at  every  corner, 
and  with  his  confreres  crowded  round  us  in  the 


THE   HOUSE  OF  THE  DIVISIONAL  JUDGE 


Street,  and  climbed,  uninvited,  on  to  the  carriage, 
thrusting  his  employer's  cards  into  his  victim's 
face.  We  were  besieged  by  him  at  the  hotel  door 
and  even  stormed  in  our  bedrooms.  It  is  very 
difficult  to  maintain  an  air  of  indifference  to  all 
this  persecution,  and  at  last  I  got  so  exasperated 
that  I  threatened  violence  with  sticks  and  umbrellas 
— nothing  short  of  this  will  keep  the  tout  at  bay. 
It  was  good  also  to  be  in  a  comfortable  house 
with  decent  food,  after  the  very  indifferent  fare  at 
Indian  hotels  and  to  get  milk  which  one  knew  was 
not  contaminated  with  typhoid  germs.  It  is  not 


274 


AMBALLA 


safetodrink  milk  in  India  unless  one  has  a  tolerably 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  individual  cow  and 
its  ways.  The  real  white  brahmini  cow — with  its 
black  points,  wide  muzzle,  and  long  drooping  ears 
— who  supplies  the  milk  for  English,  or  native 
domestic  use,  is  2.Purdah  lady,  secluded  for  life, and 


BANYAN   TREE 


she  never  strays  beyond  the  stable  or  the  courtyard, 
separated  from  the  neighbouring  domain  by  a 
low  mud  wall ;  she  is  fed  by  her  own  attendant, 
who  in  times  of  scarcity  will  wander  far  afield, 
seeking  fodder  for  his  charge.  The  other  cows, 
who  supply  the  milk  of  commerce,  are  those  one 
sees  at  large,  picking  up  a  doubtful  living  in  the 
streets  and  bazaars  :  the  ordinary  milk  is  therefore 
a  fruitful  source  of  infection. 


THE    CANTONMENT  275 

One  of  our  first  thoughts  on  arriving  was  to  in- 
quire for  Furse,  whom  we  had  last  encountered 
in  the  train  coming  here  to  be  nursed  through 
typhoid  fever ;  he  seemed  to  be  very  well  looked 
after  in  the  hospital  and  with  countless  kind  friends 
watching  his  recovery. 

The  cantonment  had  been  rather  in  mourning 
lately,  for  the  general  died  the  week  before,  and  a 
poor  man,  who  had  dined  with  our  host  the  day 
before,  was  killed  on  the  polo  ground.   Another 

man.  General ,  had  also  just  died,  poisoned 

by  his  servants,  in  whose  favour  he  had  very 
foolishly  made  a  will.  It  was  said  that  no  traces 
of  the  poison  could  be  found,  but  the  doctors 
appear  to  have  no  doubt  of  it,  and  I  am  told 
the  natives  know  of  poisons  which  leave  no  trace 
at  all. 

People  say  that  Amballa  is  a  deadly  dull  place^ 
but  we  came  in  for  census  holidays  and  a  polo 
tournament  and  there  appeared  to  be  no  end  of 
amusement  for  the  next  week  or  so.  Tent-pegging, 
polo,  and  races  were  the  order  of  the  day,  dinner- 
parties and  theatricals  of  the  night,  and  we  had  a 
delightful  time  and  met  some  very  pleasant  people, 
including  Mrs.  Nairn,  wife  of  the  Inspector-General 
of  Artillery,  whose  daughter  was  just  about  to 
marry  Capt.  Mercer,  one  of  Lord  Roberts' A.  D.C.s, 
and  some  other  agreeable  R.H.A.  people.  Captain 
Eardley  Wilmot ;  Lord  Teignmouth's  brother. 
Major  Shore  ;  and  Mrs  Knox  and  her  sister.  Miss 
Dundas  of  Arniston ;  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Elliot 
Lockhart,  relations  of  the  Davisons  of  Muirhouse, 


276 


AMBALLA 


commanding  the    R.H.A.    here ;    and  Sir  John 
Jervis  White  Jervis  and  his  wife. 

We  went  to  see  one  of  the  polo  tournament 
matches — they  were  playing  off  the  finals — ist 
West  Yorkshire  (quartered  here)  against  Bareilly 
and  Jallunder  Rifle  Brigade  teams.  As  the  Rifle 
Brigade  teams  had  each  si^  or  eight  good  ponies 
against  the  West  York  two  apiece,  it  seemed  a  great 


THE  CROWD 


triumph  of  good  play  when  they  won  the  final.  On 
the  ground  I  met  Major  Noyes,  who  commands 
the  I  st  West  Yorks  here  :  he  was  very  keen  about 
the  game,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Tommies  was 
immense.  Major  Noyes  had  come  out  Avith  us  as 
far  as  Aden  and  was  expecting  his  Colonelcy  daily. 
The  tent-pegging  amongst  native  officers  of 
Bengal  Cavalry  Regiments  was  one  of  the  prettiest 
sights  I  had  seen  in  India.  It  was  a  lovely  day  and 
almost  the  first  we  had  had  any  sun  since  we  arrived. 
After  breakfast  we  went  to  the  maidan  close  by  to 


TENT    PEGGING 


277 


the  N.W.,  and  the  wide  plain  formed  a  very  pretty 
picture,  with  the  tents  and  shifting  kaleidoscope  of 
gay-coloured  crowds,  in  which  every  figure  was  a 
studyincolour,against  a  background  of  blueHima- 


A    COMPETITOR 


layas,  capped  with  snow.  The  brightly  dressed 
native  audience,  onlookers  and  competitors — 
some  of  them  wild  looking  Pathans  and  frontier 
tribesmen  in  gorgeous  clothes — were  ranged  in  two 
long  rows,  on  either  side  of  the  course,  eagerly 
watching  each  rideras,  with  body  bent  lowand  poised 
spear,  he  comes  galloping  down,  shouting  wildly 


278 


AMBALLA 


till  he  either  misses  the  peg  or  hits  it,  and  swings 
it,  on  the  point  of  his  lance,  round  his  high-coned 
blue  turban  with  the  flashing  steel  quoit — then  a 
murmer  of  excited  approval  passed  through  the 
crowd.  All  this  in  brilliant  sunshine,  with  a  back- 
ground of  trees  and  grey-blue 
mountains  and  far  off  snow-peaks, 
was  a  scene  never  to  be  forgotten. 
It  was  a  grand  opportunity  for 
studying  variety  in  the  dress  of 
the  people ;  some  were  gloriously 
apparelled  in  their  own  native  cos- 
tume, and  others  were  in  bright 
uniforms.  The  uniforms  of  the 
loth  Bengal  Lancers,  many  of 
whom  are  Sikhs,  with  their 
blue  and  red  lance-pennons,  blue 
ONE  OF  THE  CROWD  kurta  Or  long  coat,  white  breeches, 
red  cummerbund,  and  the  blue 
cone-shaped  lungi,  or  turban,  particularly  pleased 
my  eye.  I  was  introduced  to  several  distinguished 
personages,  and  specially  remember  a  gentleman 
in  dark  green  silk,  who  was  said  to  trace  his 
descent  to  the  time  of  Abraham — or  rather  that  it 
had  been  done  for  him.  I  was  immensely  glad  we 
had  not  missed  it  all,  though  it  involved  our  fore- 
going a  visit  to  Peshawur. 

The  night  of  March  3  found  me  at  Amballa  sta- 
tion, starting,  with  my  "  boy  "  Lobo,  on  an  expedi- 
tion to  the  North- West.  My  companion  was  not 
well  and  preferred  a  few  quiet  days  at  Amballa; 
but,  besides  my  desire  to  see  Lahore  and  Amritzar, 


NATIVE    PASSENGERS  279 

I  was  driven  to  Lahore  by  a  very  prosaic  search 
for  a  dentist,  who,  it  appeared,  was  not  to  be  found 
elsewhere  in  the  North- West.  At  Delhi  such  a  per- 
son is  unknown,  andthe inhabitants  have  to  depend 
on  a  travelling  dentist  who  goes  from  place  to  place. 

An  Indian  railway  station  is  always  rather  an 
entertaining  place  :  the  amount  of  native  traffic  is 
astounding,  and  the  stations  are  always  filled  with 
a  jabbering  crowd.  I  believe  that,  if  a  native  is  to 
leave  by  a  morning  train,  he  comes  to  the  station 
overnight,  and  takes  his  ticket,  and,  not  troubling 
about  time-tables,  sleeps  there,  so  as  to  be  sure  of 
catching  it.  You  find  them  on  the  platform,  outside 
the  ticket  office,  lying  asleep,  with  heads  covered, 
rolled  in  their  cotton  quilts,  huddled  up  on  each 
other  in  indistinguishable  heaps,  like  bodies  on  a 
battlefield.  The  third-class  waiting-room  is  a 
large  hall  with  iron  gratings  for  doors,  rather  like  a 
cage  in  a  menagerie:  you  look  through  the  gratings 
and  see  all  kinds  of  strangely  garbed  people  sitting 
and  lying  about.  They  are  not  allowed  on  the  plat- 
form, till  nearly  time  for  their  train :  when  the  train 
comes  in  the  cage  is  opened  and  they  spring  to  life, 
and  with  cries  and  shouts — in  which  the  water- 
sellers  and  sellers  of  sweets  join — they  all  bustle 
down  the  long  platform, gathering  up  their  bundles 
and,  with  most  un-Oriental  lack  of  dignity,  push 
and  run  to  the  train ;  there  they  may  be  seen  pre- 
sently cooped  up  in  the  crate-like  carriages,  lying 
on  the  floor  and  standing  on  the  seats,  in  great  con- 
fusion, but  apparent  content. 

My  host  came  to  see  me  off  and  he  introduced  me 


28o 


AMBALLA 


to  a  fellow  traveller,  whom  he  chanced  to  know  ;  he 
shared  my  compartment  all  the  -way  to  Lahore, 
where  he  lived.  Perhaps  he  was  a  cynic  who,  having 
seen  much  of  the  seamy  side  of  men  and  institu- 
tions, took  a  gloomy  view  of  life  and  its  amenities; 
at  any  rate,  he  spent  the  night  most  uncomfortably, 


SWEET-SELLERS 


and,  before  leaving,  told  me  he  was  busy  and  could 
do  nothing  for  me.  I  had  experienced  a  good  deal 
of  the  kind  and  sociable  ways  of  Englishmen  in 
India,  and  no  doubt  I  had  had  more  than  I  de- 
served, of  generous  hospitality  in  other  places. 

Soon  after  achilly  sunrise  I  found  myself  driving, 
along  a  winding  road  lined  with  casuarinas,  to 
Nedou's  hotel;  Sir  James  Lyall,  with  whom  we 
were  to  have  stayed,  had  been  obliged  to  go  into 
camp,  just  at  the  time  of  my  visit  to  Lahore. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
LAHORE— THE  NORTHERN  GATE 

In  old  days,  he  who  held  Lahore  held  India,  for 
it  stands  at  the  sluice-gates  through  which,  from 
the  north-west — since  the  time  of  Alexander — the 
flood  of  many  successive  generations  of  India's 
conquerors  has  swept.  Into  Lahore  poured  the 
first  Mohammedan  invaders  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  and  looted  the  great  Brahminical 
city  of  which,  years  before,  the  Chinese  Buddhist 
pilgrims,  Fo-Hian  and  Hiuen-Tsiang,  had  de- 
scribed the  splendour.  Again,  three  centuries 
later,  the  ten  thousand  picked  horsemen  of  Mah- 
moud  of  Ghazni  burst,  *'  like  a  foaming  torrent," 
through  the  barriers  and  overwhelmed  Jai  Pal,  the 
Rajput  king  of  Lahore,  at  Peshawur.  He  was 
carried  off,  with  rich  spoils,  into  captivity,  but  re- 
leased on  promising  a  tribute  :  the  disgrace,  how- 
ever, broke  his  heart,  and  mounting  a  pyre,  he  had 
had  constructed,  he  applied  the  torch  with  his  own 
hands,  and  perished  in  the  flames.  The  burden  of 
the  tribute  passed  to  his  son,  An'ang  Pal,  who  was 
true  to  his  inherited  engagements,  though  other 
subjugated  Rajahs- were  less  loyal, and  the  northern 
Sultan  returned  in  wrath  and — defeatingthe  largest 


282  LAHORE 

army  India  had  ever  mustered — gained  a  firm  foot- 
ing in  Hindustan.  He  occupied  Lahore,  which 
remained  the  capital  of  the  Musahnan  Empire 
until  1 194,  when  Mohammad  Ghori,  or  Shahab- 
ud-din,  whose  dominions  extended  from  Tibet  to 
the  Caspian,  transferred  the  metropolis  to  Delhi. 
In  the  last  years  of  the  fourteenth  century  La- 
hore fell  before  the  invasion  of  the  lame  Timur,  and 
when  another  140  years  had  elapsed,  it  was  once 
again  sacked  and  plundered  by  the  great  Babar  in 
1526,  who  pushed  his  invasion  further,  and,  after 
the  victory  of  Paniput,  founded  the  Empire  of  the 
Moguls.  From  that  time  Lahore  ranked  as  one  of 
the  great  capitals  of  the  East,  and  Milton,  no  doubt 
basing  his  estimate  on  Mr.  William  Finch'sremark, 
"  This  is  without  doubt  one  of  the  greatest  cities  of 
the  East,"  coupled  it  with  Agra — in  the  well- 
known  lines — 

Samarckand  by  Oxus,  Timur's  throne, 
To  Pekin,  of  Simoean  kings,  and  then 
To  Agra  and  Lahor  of  Great  Mogul 
Down  to  the  golden  Chersonese. 

The  Mogul  Emperors  lived  here  at  intervals, 
and  the  four  great  builders  of  the  dynasty  are 
all  represented  in  Lahore :  Akbar  by  the  mixed 
Saracenic  and  Hindu  architecture  in  the  Fort  and 
walls,  Jehangir  and  Shah  Jehan  by  their  splendid 
palaces,  and  the  fanatical  Aurangzeb  by  the  great 
Mosque.  Subsequently  the  city  became  the  scene 
of  perpetual  pillage  and  loot  until  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Sikh  kingdom  under  Ranjit  Sing,  a 
magnificent  figure,  who  welded  the  Sikhs,  under 


THE    SIKHS  283 

European  officers,  into  the  strongest  native  power 
in  India ;  he  was  always  a  faithful  ally  of  the 
British,  and  it  was  not  till  after  his  death,  that  two 
great  wars  led  to  the  annexation  of  his  kingdom. 
The  original  cradle  of  the  Sikhs — with  their  war- 
like habits  and  traditions  and  theocratic  enthu- 
siasm— lies  in  an  upland  district  between  the 
Sutlej  and  the  Ravi.  They  are  not  a  distinct  race, 
though  chiefly  Jats;  but  a  well-disciplined  religious 
and  military  democratic  brotherhood  of  re- 
formed Hindus,  and  Sir  Monier  Williams  appears 
to  think  them  most  akin  to  the  worshippers  of 
Vishnu.  They  owe  their  origin  to  Nanak,  who 
was  born,  of  a  farmer's  family,  on  the  banks  of 
the  River  Ravi  fourteen  years  before  the  birth 
of  Martin  Luther  (1469).  He  spoke  as  a  divinely 
inspired  teacher,  and  the  character  of  his  message 
and  its  influence,  in  the  early  days  when  the 
Granth — their  sacred  book — w^as  written,  before 
corruption  and  degeneracy  crept  in,  was  such 
that  Bishop  French  of  Lahore  says,  that  to  those  of 
his  Sikh  hearers,  who  were  well  up  in  their  own 
sacred  writings,  quotations  from  the  Gospels,  or 
Early  Fathers,  seemed  to  express  spiritual  truths 
with  which  they  were  familiar.  Sikh  signifies 
literally  "  a  disciple, "  and  at  first  they  were  little  else 
than  a  body  of  seekers  after  the  divine  way  of  truth 
and  peace  of  mind.  Since  Nanak's  day,  however, 
the  system  has  been  consolidated,  and  much  modi- 
fied, by  successive  Gurus,  or  teachers.  Under  the 
fifth  Guru  Arjun  (1581-1606)  they  became  a  poli- 
tical community :  he  came  into  collision  with  the 


284  LAHORE 

Mohammedans  and  died  a  prisoner  in  Lahore  under 
Jehangir.  It  was  Arjun  who  compiled  the  Granth 
— or  Holy  Book — an  object  of  immense  venera- 
tion amongst  the  Sikhs:  the  sayings  and  doctrines 
of  Nanak  are  comprised  in  one  divisionof  the  book, 
called  the  "  Japji,"  which  the  true  Sikh  is  directed 
to  read  every  morning,  as  containing  the  key  to  the 
teaching  of  all  the  Gurus.  It  is  said  to  be  *'  noble 
in  spirit,  poetical  in  form,  and  worthy  to  be  classed 
with  some  of  the  noblest  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms," 
and  to  express  a  mysticism  comparable  to  that  of 
Wordsworth's  Tintern  Abbey — full  of 

a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns 
.  .  .  and  in  the  mind  of  man. 

Nanak  dwells  specially  on  the  character  of  God, 
as  a  self-conscious  Being,  who  loves  and  cares  for 
His  creatures,  who  hears  their  prayers  and  enters 
into  personal  relations  with  them.  He  taught  that 
the  royal  road  to  the  knowledge  of  God  and  to 
intercourse  with  Him,  was  neither  by  intellectual 
knowledge  nor  ritual  "good  deeds,"  but  through 
"remembrance  of  the  Name" — or  meditation  on 
the  character  of  God — conformity  to  His  Will,  and 
right  conduct ;  also  that  the  Immanent  Spirit 
reveals  Himself  amidst  the  businessof  life — aswell 
as  in  the  solitary  places — if  the  heart  be  intent  on 
hearing  His  voice  and  doing  His  Will.  The 
moral  standard  of  the  first  Sikhs  was  a  high  one  ; 
gambling  and  immorality  were  punishable  offences; 
falsehood,  slander,  and  fornication  were  branded 


GURU    GOVIND  285 

as  deadly  sins ;  truthfulness,  honesty,  and  kindness 
were  inculcated.  And  by  Nanak's  doctrine,  ''There 
is  no  Hindu  and  no  Mussalman,"  all  caste  divisions 
were  swept  away  in  the  brotherhood.  The  later 
Gurus,  however,  preached  the  duty  of  destroying 
the  enemies  of  the  faith,  and  soon,  the  original  aim 
of  the  founder  was  frustrated  and  forgotten. 

Under  the  later  Moguls,  the  Sikhs  endured  bitter 
persecution,  but  theygained  in  strength,  and  gradu- 
ally developed  from  a  religious  order  into  a  military 
community  known  as  the  Kalsa,  or  elect.  Though  con- 
stantly at  war  with  their  Mohammedan  rulers,  and 
representing — like  the  Mahrattas  in  the  south — the 
Hindu  reaction,  and  formingone  of  the  main  causes 
of  the  internal  disintegration  of  the  Empire,  yet 
they  constituted  a  protection  against  attack  from 
outside,  and  for  many  years  kept  back  the  tide  of 
further  Afghan  invasion.  The  last  Guru  who  had 
any  pretensions  to  beingaspiritual  leader  was  Guru 
Govind  (1721).  He  established  the  political  inde- 
pendence of  his  followers,  and,  after  him,  the  rule 
of  the  Guruship  was  abolished  and  only  military 
leaders  were  elected.  The  contrast  between  this 
later  history  of  the  Sikhs — when  they  lived  only 
for  the  holy  war,  with  its  tale  of  slaughter  and 
bloodshed — and  the  precepts  of  Nanak,  is  absolute. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  military  prowess 
of  the  Sikhs  reached  its  zenith,  for,  after  a  long 
struggle  with  the  Afghans,  they  finally  won  the 
supremacy  of  the  Punjab  in  a  battle  near  Amritzar 
in  1 764.  They  then  established  themselves  firmly 
in  Lahore,  which  became  the  military  centre  of  their 


286  LAHORE 

kingdom,  but  was  constantly  robbed  to  glorify  the 
religious  centre,  Amritzar.  They  ruled  the  north- 
west for  a  century,  and  became  a  nation  of  free- 
booters, sweeping  down  and  over-running  the  ad- 
jacent country  like  locusts.  They  destroyed  the 
crops  and  the  fine  groves  of  trees,  the  legacy  of  the 
piety  of  past  generations  ;  and  they  massacred  the 
populations.  They  were  then  said  to  be  **  false,  san- 
guinary, faithless,  and  addicted  to  plunder  and  the 
acquirement  of  wealth  by  any  means  however  nefa- 
rious." After  Ranjit  Sing's  death  they  invaded 
British  territory  in  1845,  and  began  the  first 
Sikh  War,  which  led  ultimately  to  the  annexation 
in  1849.  Then  they  were  enlisted  in  small  numbers 
in  the  Sepoy  regiments.  On  the  outbreak  of  the 
Mutiny  Lord  Lawrence  enrolled  many  more,  and 
they  behaved  with  such  conspicuous  loyalty  as  to 
have  justly  earned  the  reputation  of  the  most 
gallant  and  faithful  soldiers  of  the  Indian  Empire. 

The  Sikhs  differ  from  all  the  Hindu  sects  in  that 
they  are  **  not  born  but  made  "  ;  they  are  not  idol- 
aters, and  welcome  all  castes  in  the  community. 
Like  the  Nazarite  of  old,  the  initiated  Sikh  never 
shaves  or  cuts  his  hair ;  and  tobacco  is  forbidden 
him.  His  beard  is  divided  in  the  middle,  and  pass- 
ing behind  his  ears  is  twisted  in  a  coil  with  his  hair, 
under  the  dark  blue  high-coned  turban  in  which  he 
wears  a  miniature  steel  quoit. 

When  the  kingdom  of  Ranjit  Sing  came  into 
possession  of  the  British  at  the  end  of  the  second 
Sikh  War  (1849)  the  district  was  taken  by  the 
East  India  Company  from   Maharajah  Dhuleep 


THE    KOHINOOR  287 

Sing,  and  with  it  came  into  their  possession 
the  famous  diamond,  the  Kohinoor.  After  the 
murder  of  Nadir  Shah  in  1739  thi^  historic  stone 
had  passed  through  many  vicissitudes,  and  came 
at  last,  in  a  much  mutilated  condition — as  the 
price  of  the  liberty  of  Shah  Soojah,  its  blind  and 
decrepit  royal  owner — into  the  hands  of  Ranjit 
Sing.  He  left  on  his  death-bed  instructions  that  it 
was  to  be  sent  to  Jagganath,  but  his  son  retained  it, 
amongst  his  treasures,  until  the  day  when  it  was 
personally  entrusted  to  Lord  Lawrence  for  trans- 
mission to  the  Queen.  One  of  the  quaintest  of  its 
many  adventures  then  followed.  Lord  Lawrence 
placed  the  small  box,  in  its  cotton  wrappings,  that 
contained  it,  in  his  waistcoat  pocket,  and  promptly 
forgot  all  about  it  until,  six  weeks  later,  he  was 
called  upon  to  send  it  home.  Then  the  circum- 
stances flashed  across  his  mind,  and  with  much 
anxiety  he  hastily  summoned  his  bearer,  and  in- 
quired whether  he  recollected  the  box  being  in  his 
pocket  sometime  before.  The  servant  had  found  it, 
and,  with  the  care  of  a  good  native  servant, 
though  he  thought  it  contained  only  a  worthless 
piece  of  glass,  had  luckily  put  it  carefully  away  in 
a  battered  tin  box,  and,  to  Lord  Lawrence's  great 
relief,  was  able  to  produce  it  at  once. 

Since  Lahore  came  into  our  hands  a  second  town 
has  grown  up  outside  the  old  city  :  the  moat  has 
been  filled  in  and  planted  with  a  shady  belt  of 
garden,  forming  a  green  girdle  round  Akbar's  and 
Ranjit  Sing's  walls,  with  their  twelve  gates.  It 
is  a  city  of  gardens  where  all  sorts  of  trees  and 


288  LAHORE 

shrubs  flourish  :  the  roses,  I  believe,  are  something 
to  rave  about,  and  mulberry,  guava,  orange,  vine, 
and  peaches  and  plums  bear  splendid  crops — the 
scarlet-flowered  pomegranates  in  the  gardens,  and 
the  green  meadows  of  the  Champ  de  Mars,  near  the 
town,  form  a  delightful  foreground  to  the  distant 
views.  On  very  bright  days,  when  the  air  is  not  too 
much  charged  with  dust,  the  snow-clad  Himalayas 
come  into  sight,  far  far  away,  stretching  their  mas- 
sive, gigantic,  and  noble  forms  proudly,  above  the 
clouds,  into  the  blue  heavens.  The  middle  distance 
is  perfectly  flat :  it  is  fertile,  but  depends  much  on 
irrigation,  and  when  not  irrigated  by  canal  water, 
tends  to  become  a  mere  barren  desert  or  steppe 
dotted  with  stunted  camel-broom  and  wormwood 
and  other  shrubs;  clusters  of  mud  or  reed  huts 
occur  here  and  there,  by  the  side  of  a  muddy  pond, 
and  are  dignified  by  the  name  of  village. 

I  found  a  great  deal  to  attract  me  in  the  won- 
derful walled  city  of  Lahore  ;  though  the  buildings 
all  recall  Delhi  and  Agra,  and  seemed  on  rather  a 
lower  level  of  interest,  yet  there  are  certain  things 
which  are  unique  and  essentially  characteristic  of 
the  place,  and  these,  in  themselves  alone,  are  well 
worth  coming  here  to  see — they  help  one  to  imagine 
what  the  town  was  like  in  the  old  days  of  its  splen- 
dour, when  the  Persian  poet  used  it  as  an  instance 
of  transcendent  attainment : 

God  has  made  by  His  own  power, 

One  city  great,  one  city  small, 

Not  every  town  becomes  a  Delhi  or  Lahore. 

My  first  care  was  to  get  the  Handbook  descrip- 


THE    FORT  289 

tions  as  correct  as  possible  ;  I  found  it  no  easy  task, 
and  it  occupied  the  whole  livelong  day,  as  there  was 
no  one  to  help  me,  and  the  only  book  relating  to 
the  place  shirked  all  the  difficulties  and  swallowed 
all  the  old  blunders.  Immediately  after  breakfast, 
I  drove  off  to  see  the  sights.  The  Fort  is  one 
of  the  chief  objects  of  interest ;  but  owing  to 
the  absence  of  a  reliable  guide  I  was  much  put  to 
it  to  understand  and  unravel  its  intricacies.  There 
used  to  be  an  intelligent  non-commissioned  officer 
there,  who  knew  something  about  the  place,  but 
he  with  the  whole  garrison  had  gone,  only  two 
days  before,  and  had  been  replaced  by  a  new  lot, 
who  were  more  ignorant  of  the  place  than  I  was 
myself. 

Lahore  Fort  in  its  palmy  days  must  have  been 
a  splendid  place,  perhaps  equal,  or  approaching  in 
beauty  to  that  at  Delhi.  But  vandalism,  British 
and  other,  has  robbed  it  of  most  of  its  splendour. 
The  outside  of  the  Palace  of  Akbar,  which  faces 
the  deep  ditch  and  overlooks  the  outer  wall,  is 
profusely  decorated  with  incaustic  tiles  and  the 
mosaics  of  tile  work,  called  Kashi  or  Nak  Kashi 
work,  i.e.,  pottery  made  of  the  same  material  as 
tiles,  but  in  all  kinds  of  odd  shapes  and  repre- 
senting differentquaint  subjects — combats  between 
animals,  tigers  and  bulls,  elephants,  dragons.  In 
the  spandrils  of  some  of  the  window-arches  there 
are  splendid  flying  angels,  with  girdles  and  long 
tassels,  each  bearing  in  its  hand  something  which, 
from  below,  looks  like  a  lamb  or  possibly  a  bird. 

This  very  unorthodox  decoration — according  to 


290  LAHORE 

Mohammedan  doctrine — is  attributable  to  the  time 
of  Jehangir,  who  preferred  to  live  here  rather  than 
at  Agra  and  contributed  much  to  the  splendour 
and  prosperity  of  Lahore ;  even  in  the  time  of 
Akbar  its  bazaars  stretched  far  over  the  now  deso- 
late tract  beyond  the  walls.  Jehangir  is  said  to 
have  given  so  much  encouragement  to  the  Portu- 
guese Missionaries  that  he  allowed  a  figure  of  the 
Madonna  to  appear  on  one  of  his  buildings  and 
used  a  rosaryon  which werefiguresof  Christ  andthe 
Virgin.  It  is  said  that  with  his  full  approval  several 
members  of  his  family  were  baptized :  there  is, 
however,  considerable  doubt  as  to  the  real  extent 
of  Christian  influence  at  the  Mogul  Court.  Cer- 
tainly in  Jehangir's  case,  the  influence  does  not 
appear  to  have  affected  in  any  way  his  life  and  moral 
character.  Sir  Thomas  Roe — the  Ambassador  from 
James  I. — bears  witness  to  the  drinking  bouts  to 
which  he  was  addicted  in  private,  and  to  the  brutal 
ferocity  of  his  treatment  of  those  who  incurred 
his  displeasure.  Prince  Khusru,  his  eldest  son — 
whose  tomb  we  saw  at  Allahabad — for  a  short  time 
held  Lahore  against  him,  but,  with  his  supporters, 
fell  into  his  father's  hands  :  Jehangir  caused  seven 
hundred  of  Khusru's  followers  to  be  impaled  in  a 
line  outside  the  gate  of  Lahore  Fort,  and  he  had 
the  unfortunate  Khusru,  loaded  with  chains,  and 
carried  on  an  elephant,  down  the  line,  to  witness 
the  terrible  spectacle  of  their  prolonged  sufferings. 
Khusru,  who  inherited  something  of  Babar's  tem- 
perament, was  much  affected,  and  for  years  re- 
mained a  prey  to  the   deepest  melancholy :   his 


PALACES  291 

subsequent  fate,  as  his  father's  prisoner,  excited 
much  interest  and  he  was  for  long  the  popular  hero 
of  his  day. 

The  palace  in  the  Fort  was  built  round  three 
sides  of  a  large  central  courtyard,  with  a  garden  in 
the  middle,  and  a  lovely  pavilion,  with  a  richly 
sculptured  verandah,  overlooking  the  Ravi  on  the 
fourth  side.  The  curious  red  sandstone  corbels  of 
part  of  the  palace — twisted  into  the  likeness  of  pea- 
cocks, monkeys,  elephants,  and  griffons — are  quite 
Hindu  in  character,  and  appear  to  date  from 
Akbar's  time.  It  is  not  very  easy  to  realise  what 
the  palace  was  in  old  days,  as  it  has  suffered  so 
terribly  from  Sikh  and  European  alterations,  that 
little  of  its  original  form  remains.  The  beautiful 
little  white  marble  mosque,  the  Moti  Musjid,  with 
its  three  domes  was,  I  found,  the  strong  room  of 
the  Fort  and  secured  with  many  padlocks  and  sen- 
tries, who  did  not  allow  me  even  to  approach  it ; 
whilst  another  beautiful  white  marble  building  of 
Jehangir,  the  Diwan-i-Khas,  which  stands  near  his 
red  sandstone  Kwabgah,  or  sleeping  palace,  was 
used  as  a  garrison  church  at  the  time  of  my  visit. 
It  is  of  a  beautiful  simplicity  of  design  and  is  sup- 
ported on  thirty-two  delicate  pillars.  Both  these 
buildings  have  now  been  disencumbered  of  their 
European  tenants,  but  the  Diwan-i-Am,  a  grand 
hall  near  the  centre  of  the  Fort,  is  entirely  spoilt 
by  alterations,  modern  walls  and  whitewash,  and 
converted  into  barracks  ;  and  the  Shish  Mahal — 
or  Palaceof  Mirrors,  adelicatelybeautifulbuilding — 
of  rather  later  period  and  attributed  to  Shah  Jehan 


292  LAHORE 

and  Aurangzeb — though  in  more  or  less  perfect 
condition,  has  been  encrusted  by  Ranjit  Sing, 
who  used  to  hold  his  Durbars  there,  with  a  mosaic 
of  looking-glass,  more  in  harmony  with  modern 
oriental  taste  than  with  ours  and  quite  out  of  key 
with  the  feeling  of  the  building. 

From  the  windows  of  this  hall  northwards  there 
is  a  beautiful  view  over  the  Almond  Gardens  and 
plain  beyond  to  the  Ravi,  a  mile  or  two  away. 
Before  Aurangzeb's  too  successful  attempt  to  pre- 
vent inundations  by  diverting  the  course  of  the 
stream,  the  river  ran  just  below  the  Fort.  Where 
its  broad  bright  blue  stream  now  flows  to  join  the 
Indus,  stands  Jehangir's  beautiful  tomb,  on  the 
Shahdera,  which  Ranjit  Sing  robbed  to  form  the 
Bara  Darri,  a  rich  and  fanciful  gem  of  a  marble 
pavilion  standingin  the  tangledgarden — the  Hazuri 
Bagh — which  separates  the  Fort  from  Aurang- 
zeb's great  cathedral  mosque. 

Near  here  are  the  sacred  places  of  the  Sikhs  ; 
amongst  them  the  humble  shrine  of  their  fifth 
Guru  Arjun  Mall,  the  compiler  of  the  Granth, 
who  is  believed  to  have  perished  as  a  martyr,  in  the 
Ravi,  on  this  spot — and  the  Sanadh  of  Ranjit 
Sing,  a  much  more  pretentious  mausoleum,  with 
its  round  roof  and  projecting  balconies.  Above  his 
ashes,  in  the  centre  of  a  marble  platform,  is  a  large 
lotus  flower  carved  in  marble  and  surrounded  by 
eleven  smaller  flowers :  the  central  flower  covers  the 
ashes  of  the  great  Maharaja  and  the  others  cover 
those  of  his  wives,  who  became  sati  and  under- 
went cremation  with  their  husband. 


THE    GREAT    MOSQUE  293 

Aurangzeb's  mosque,  the  Badshahi  Musjid,  as 
it  is  called,  is  a  fine  and  stately  example  of  that — 
not  by  any  means  the  best — period  ;  its  general 
effect  is  marred  by  the  absence  of  the  crowning 
cupolas  to  the  red  sandstone  minarets  ;  being 
damaged  in  1880  by  an  earthquake,  the  tops  were 
taken  down,  leaving  the  minarets  looking,  for  all 
theworld,like  factory  chimneys,  though  theyappear 
massive  and  imposing  as  they  rise  above  the  large 


THE   FORT  AND  JUMMA   MUSJID 


and  shady  trees  of  the  mosque  courtyard.  The 
mosque  was  builtbyAurangzeb,  with  the  confiscated 
funds  of  his  elder  brother,  Dara  Shikoh,  whom — 
having  safely  disposed  of  his  father.  Shah  Jehan,  in 
Agra  Fort — he  murdered  in  order  to  secure  the  suc- 
cession to  the  throne.  After  a  long  pursuit  Aurang- 
zeb  had  captured  Dara  nearAhmedabad  and  bring- 
ing him  to  Delhi  paraded  him  through  the  streets, 
amid  circumstances  of  great  indignity;  he  then  sub- 
mitted him  to  a  mock  trial,  and, finally  by  the  hand 
of  his  personal  enemy,  sent  and  murdered  him  in 
prison.  His  body  was  exposed  to  the  populace  on 
an  elephant,  and  the  head  was  then  brought  on  a 


294  LAHORE 

silver  dish  to  Aurangzeb.  It  is  hardly  surprising 
that  the  mosque  should  never  have  been  afavourite 
place  of  prayer. 

When  the  Sikhs  had  the  upper  hand  in  Lahore 
they,  in  their  turn,  persecuted  the  Mohammedans, 
and  desecrating  the  mosque  made  a  magazine  of 
it:  it  was  not  till  1850  that  the  Mohammedans  ob- 
tained permission  from  the  British  Government  to 
restore  the  mosque  to  its  original  use,  and  they 
collected  large  sums  of  money  which  they  spent  on 
its  cleansing  and  restoration  ;  it  has  unfortunately 
suffered  terribly  again  from  the  earthquake  of  1905. 
In  a  chamber  above  the  gateway  are  kept  some 
sacred  relics  of  the  Prophet  and  of  Hasan  and 
Husein  which  used  to  be  in  the  Fort.  It  took  the 
priest  in  charge  five  minutes  to  open  the  padlocks 
to  the  various  doors  enclosing  them,  and  then, 
before  showing  them  off,  he  made  us  wait  whilst  he 
saidatedious  and  monotonous  prayer.  Thenwesaw 
the  pugaree  and  slippers  of  the  prophet  and  a  hair 
of  his  beard,  and  various  specimens  of  his  hand- 
writing. Dusty,  fusty  things  they  are,  but  the  old 
priest,  who  showed  them  to  us,  was  very  anxious 
to  impress  upon  us  their  beauty  and  unique  value. 

My  second  morni  ng  at  Lahore,  I  started  before  the 
sun  was  up  for  a  drive  of  six  miles  to  Shahdera. 
It  was  bitterly  cold  and  frost  covered  the  grass, 
until  the  first  horizontal  rays  of  the  sun  were  felt, 
and  then  the  frost  suddenly  disappeared  and  by 
8.30  it  had  become  quite  hot.  Lahore  is  very  hot 
in  summer,  but  in  winter  the  frost  is  quite  severe, 
and  the  natives  used,  I  am  told,  to  collect  ice  to 


THE    RIVER   RAVI 


295 


store,  in  small  flat  pans,  and  presented  a  very  busy 
scene  before  sunrise — men,  women,  and  children 
ice-picking.  It  was  rather  a  pretty  drive  to  the 
river,  under  avenues  of  acacia,  through  the  very 
flat  country  all  under  cultivation,  till  on  a  bridge 
of  boats  we  crossed  the  broad  and  bright  blue  Ravi, 
flowing  down  to  join  the  Indus.  The  natives  have 
curious  ways  of  fishing  in  these  rivers,  an  earthen- 
ware pot  is  floated  down  the  stream,  on  which  the 
fisherman  rests  his  stomach,  lying  flat  and  paddling 


with  his  hands  and  feet :  at  a  propitious  moment 
he  flings  abroad  a  net,  over  the  surface  of  the 
stream  ;  he  throws  the  fish  thus  caught  into  his 
earthenware  pot  and  paddles  on  again.  Sometimes 
these  figures  have  a  very  droll  look,  only  the  head 
and  neck  of  the  fisherman  being  seen  above  the 
water,  with  a  small  part  of  the  red  earthenware  pot 
and  the  uplifted  staff  to  which  the  net  is  fastened. 
Now  and  then  large  numbers  of  them  are  carried 
down  stream  on  floats,  with  nothing  appearing 
above  water  but  their  turbaned  heads  ;  these  have 
a  very  weird  appearance,  shouting  and  singing  as 
they  bob  up  and  down  on  their  way  down  the  river. 


296  LAHORE 

A  friend  described  to  me  another  original  method 
of  river  navigation  which  they  practise.  Six  or 
eight  chatties  with  large  open  mouths  are  lashed 
together  on  the  underside  of  a  charpoy — or  wood 
and  string  bedstead — in  such  a  manner  that  the 
mouths  of  the  chatties  open  downwards.  This 
contrivance  is  then  carried  to  the  water  and  care- 
fully lowered,  so  that  each  chatty  remains  full  of 
air.  This  forms  a  raft  of  sufficient  buoyancy  to  carry 
a  passenger,  and  it  is  manoeuvred  by  the  fisherman 
seated  astride  on  a  net-full  of  empty  gourds  :  thus 
he  rides  through  the  water,  being  above  it  from 
the  waist  upwards,  and  controls  and  directs  the 
primitive  craft. 

Shahdera,  which  I  reached  at  about  eight  o'clock, 
is  a  low  square  building  of  red  sandstone  and 
marble,  raised  on  a  platform  with  a  big  minaret  at 
each  of  the  four  corners,  a  wide  marble  terrace  above 
it  forms  the  roof.  The  cenotaph,  beautifully  de- 
corated with  pietra-dura  work,  is  in  the  centre  of 
the  building,  in  a  small  octagonal  chamber  with 
pierced  marble  screens  on  each  side  ;  a  large  tang- 
led garden,  containing  a  few  stray  flowers,  sur- 
rounds it  all.  This  was  once  the  Dilkusha  garden 
or  pleasaunce  of  Jehangir's  beautiful  and  capable 
wife,  Noor  Jehan,  who  with  her  father  and  brother, 
Asaf  Khan,  completely  dominated  the  cruel,  but 
pleasure-loving  Jehangir  and  his  empire  towards 
the  end  of  his  life.  Noor  Jehan  was  the  daughter 
of  a  needy  Persian  refugee,  who  with  his  son  obtained 
employment  and  rose  to  well  deserved  honour  at 
Akbar's  court.  Jehangir  fell  in  love  with  the  grace- 


SHAHDERA  297 

ful  and  accomplished  girl  whom  he  saw  in  his 
father's  harem — perhaps  at  one  of  the  fairs  Bernier 
describes — and  though  they  married  her  to  Sher 
Afgan,  a  Persian,  to  whom  Akbar  gave  the  gover- 
norship of  Burdwan  in  Bengal,  Jehangir  did  not 
rest  until  he  had  had  Sher  Afgan  murdered 
and  Noor  Jehan  brought  back  to  Agra.  It  was 
not,  however,  till  he  had  been  six  years  Emperor 
that  she  consented  to  marry  him  ;  then  she  ob- 
tained an  ascendency  over  him  unparalleled  in 
the  East.  Her  name  appears  with  Jehangir's  on 
coins  and  her  will  was  law  in  all  affairs  of  state. 
Her  father  became  prime  minister  and  her  brother 
received  some  other  high  appointment ;  her  niece 
Muntaz  Mahal  she  married  to  Shah  Jehan.  Fortu- 
nately the  family  were  wise  and  upright  and  their 
swaybeneficial  to  the  Empire.  She  survived  Jehan- 
gir's death — of  asthma — for  twenty  years,  but  lived 
in  obscurity  and,  in  sign  of  mourning,  never  wore 
anything  again  but  white.  Her  tomb,  near  Jehan- 
gir's at  Shahdera,  was  completely  ruined  to  adorn 
Amritzar :  that  of  her  brother  Asaf  Khan,  the  father 
of  Muntaz  Mahal  stands  in  the  middle  of  another 
garden  to  the  west  of  the  Serai,  and  was  most 
sadly  treated  by  Ranjit  Sing  and  robbed  of  all  its 
veneer  of  marble  and  stone  ;  there  is, still,  however, 
a  good  deal  of  beautiful  Nak  Kashi  work  sticking 
to  the  portal  ceilings. 

Returning  to  the  city  to  breakfast,  I  went  to 
sketch  about  ten — having  interviewed  my  dentist 
again — and  hoped  to  have  a  field  day  of  it,  in  the 
unique  native  streets. 


298  LAHORE 

The  old  town  is  delightfully  picturesque,  and 
quite  a  treasure-house  for  sketching.  It  consists  of 
a  network  of  narrow,  tortuous  streets  of  high,  brown 
brick,  flat-roofed  houses  with  the  usual  hot  and  gay 
bazaars  below.  Here  bullock  carts  and  the  huge 
mouse-coloured  bulls  shoulder  their  way  through 
the  variegated  crowd  of  many  tribes  and  nations 
which  throng  this  northern  frontier  town,  and  by 
their  warlike  bearing,  and  more  sympathetic,  warm- 
hearted aspect,  are  a  contrast  to  that  of  the  natives 
further  south.  Looking  down  upon  the  streets  are 
the  most  fascinating  oriel  windows,  and  beautifully 
carved  balconies,  of  all  manner  of  unexpected 
shapes  ;  they  stick  to  the  sides  of  the  walls  like 
nests  of  swallows  or  bees,  and  make  the  narrow 
Lahore  lanes,  often  ending  in  culs  de  sac,  some  of 
the  most  taking  in  the  world.  There  is  an  infinite 
variety  in  the  endless  crowded  rows  of  picturesque 
projections.  All  the  windows  are  ornamented,  and 
shut  in,  with  wooden  screens  of  delicately  beauti- 
ful lattice  work,  and  the  overhanging  wooded  bal- 
conies, on  which  they  often  open  are  not  only  carved 
with  elaborate  designs,  but  painted  with  bold  blue 
and  red  devices,  so  that  no  space  fails  to  make  its 
appeal  to  the  eye.  In  the  centre  of  the  old  town  is 
the  mosque  of  Vizir  Khan,  a  beautiful  building,  all 
inlaidwith  mosaicsof  incaustic  tile  w^ork,  and  ablaze 
with  glorious  colour  glittering  in  the  sun  :  in  and 
about  it,  in  the  ceaseless  play  of  light  and  shade, 
are  throngs  of  natives  of  the  most  picturesque 
description,  including  many  Pathans,  fellow 
countrymen  of  Kim's  ally  Maboub  Ali,  who  come 


NARROW   STREETS 


299 


here  for  horse-dealing  and  other  trade  ;  and  a  few 
supercilious  looking-  camels,  who  appear  to  regard 
their  surroundings  with  supreme  indifference. 


WINDOWS  LIKE  BEES'  NESTS 


Owing  to  the  narrowness  of  the  street,  and  to 
the  dense  throng  of  passers-by,  I  was  compelled 
to  charter  a  rickety  ticcaghari  and  anchor  it  in  the 
position  from  which  I  wanted  to  make  my  sketch. 


LAHORE 


It  was  as  good  a  subject  as  I  could  have  wished  to 
have  :  before  me  was  a  massive  archway  spanning 
the  street — intensely  dark  in  its  cavernous  recesses 
— and  under  it,  a  jostling  crowd  was  passing  and  re- 


l   STREET   WINDOW 


passing  in  garments  of  every  vivid  colour — though 
the  blue,  the  Sikh  colour,  predominated — looking 
brilliant,  by  contrast,  as  they  stepped  into  the  sun- 
light from  beneath  the  shade.  On  either  side  were 
shops  and  stalls,  buyers  and  sellers  :  and  the  air 
was  full  of  many  voices.  Above  the  heads  of  the 
crowd,  through  the  archway,  I  could  see  one  of 


A  GATEWAY  IN  THE  BAZAAk, 
LAHORE 

"A  MASSIVE  archway — intensely  dark  in  its  cavernous 
recesses — spanned  the  street,  and  under  it  a  jostling 
crowd  passed  and  repassed,  looking  brilliant  as  they 
stepped  into  the  sunlight  from  beneath  the  shade. 
Through  the  archway  I  could  see  one  of  the  many 
coloured  minarets  of  Vizar  Khan's  mosque  soaring  up 
into  the  blue  sky ;  and  a  superb  figure— with  the 
bearing  of  a  prince — came  striding  towards  me  and 
gave  a  central  completing  touch  to  the  scene. ' ' 


Plalciy 


THE    MUSEUM  301 

many  coloured  minarets  of  Vizir  Khan's  mosque 
soaring  up  into  the  blue  sky ;  and,  while  I  was  at 
work,  a  superb  figure — huge,  and  with  the  bearing 
of  a  prince — came  striding  towards  me         ^ 
and  seemed   to  give   a   central   and        ,/    ^ 
completing  touch  to  this  gay  scene. 

Encompassed  by  these  narrow^ 
streets  is  a  Sikh  temple  with  a  fine 
well.  To  get  at  it  I  entered  a  court- 
yard from  a  back  lane ;  there  I  en- 
countered an  old  man  who  could  not 
make  out  why  on  earth  I  wanted  to 
see  the  well.  The  door  to  the  staircase 
was  locked,  and  he  put  so  many  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  getting  the  key, 
and  was  so  mysterious  altogether, 
that  I  was  at  last — having  no  time  to 
lose — obliged  to  give  it  up  as  a  bad 
job,  and  go  on  to  the  Museum,  where 
is  the  finest  collection  of  Buddhist 
sculptures  in  existence.  Some  of  them  are  really 
most  artistic,  and  display  curious  traces  of  Greek 
influence  in  the  feeling  and  execution.  They 
come  from  the  Buddhist  sacred  places  in  the 
north,  and  the  crowded  friezes  once  covered  the 
brick  stupas,  with  endless  series  of  representa- 
tions of  the  beautiful  tale  of  Sakya  Muni's  life  and 
death  and  miracles — the  familiar  scenes  in  which 
he  is  represented  with  the  begging  bowl,  or  seated 
under  the  bo-tree  in  meditation,  or  on  a  lotus  as 
the  object  of  adoring  veneration.  One  curious  and 
quaint  object  which  attracted  my  attention  was  a 


A   CL'RIOUS   COLUiM 


302  LAHORE 

red  sandstone  Buddhist  column  about  ten  feet  high, 
which  came  from  near  Jhelum  :  it  had  a  large  and 
solemn  head  carved  upon  it  and  projecting  from  it, 
near  the  top,  some  five  or  six  inches. 

Unluckily,  I  had  no  time  to  visit  the  famous  rose 
gardens,  five  miles  out  at  Shalimar : 

Where  Sultan  after  Sultan,  with  his  pomp. 
Abode  his  hour  or  two  and  went  his  way. 

Irani,  indeed,  is  gone  with  all  its  rose. 

And  Jamshy'd's  sev'n-ring'd  cup,  where  no  one  knows  ; 

But  still  a  ruby  kindles  in  the  vine, 

And  many  a  garden  by  the  water  blows. 

Great  groves  of  mango  and  gigantic  fig  and  orange 
trees,  over  two  hundred  years  old,  still  spread  round 
the  old  palace,  and  they  and  the  beautiful  marble- 
bordered  lakes  swarm  with  birds  and  squirrels. 

In  Lahore,  as  in  most  other  places  in  India,  in  the 
town  and  country  alike,  are  countless  numbers  of 
birds  which,  never  molested  by  the  natives,  are  as 
tame  as  possible.  The  blue  rock  pigeons  come 
down  on  theroofsand  courtyards  in  clouds,  making 
the  place  where  they  alight,  quite  blue.  In  the  old 
buildings  all  the  holes  and  corners  are  inhabited 
by  green  parrots,  with  red  bills,  who  poke  out  their 
cheeky  noses  at  every  turn,  and  fly  fussily  about 
over  one's  head — chattering  as  vociferously  as  the 
natives  below.  Along  the  country  road  the  most 
common  birds  are  the  minah  and  the  turtle-dove : 
then  there  are  huge  cranes,  all  tamer  than  barn- 
door fowls  at  home.  As  to  noxious  beasts  I  met 
none  anywhere  in  India.  The  snakes  were  all 
underground,  except   those  in  the  possession  of 


KIM  303 

the  charmers,  and  they  are  not  in  the  habit  of  roam- 
ing at  large.  I  saw  plenty  of  bees  by  the  way,  hang- 
ing to  rocks  and  palaces,  but  I  did  not  molest 
them,  and  they  refrained  from  interfering  with 
me.  Everywhere  there  were  grey-hooded  crows 
(Corvus  splendens),  and  any  number  of  kites,  who 
are  fellow  partners  in  the  scavenger  business. 
Wherever  there  were  trees  there  were  swarms  of 
squirrels  of  a  buff  colour,  with  dark  stripes,and  as  I 
sat  and  sketched  theycame  and  played  aboutalmost 
between  my  feet;  they  are  quite  as  little  shy  as  the 
funny  little  girls — nice  bright-eyed  little  bejewelled 
urchins  in  the  blue  Sikh  colour,  with  flashing  white 
teeth — who  approach  the  stranger  with  curiosity. 

Outside  the  old  Museum  building  is  the  famous 
green  bronze  gun  called  the  Zamzamah,  or  the 
lion's  roar,  possession  of  which,  is  said  to  carry 
with  it  supremacy  in  the  North-West,  on  which 
Kim  sat  astride,  and  kicked  with  his  hard  little 
heels  when  he  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  his 
lama  and  laid  the  foundation  of  that  quest  for  the 
River  of  the  Arrow,  which  was  to  cleanse  from  sin, 
and  has  taken  so  many  of  us  deeper  into  the  heart 
of  India  than  would  endless  years  of  personal  pil- 
grimage on  its  highways. 


CHAPTER   XV 
AMRITZAR:  THE   POOL  OF   IMMORTALITY 

On  my  way  back  to  Amballa  to  pick  up  my  com- 
panion I  stopped  at  Amritzar,  and  spent  twelve 
hours  there.  Twelve  days  would  not  have  been  too 
much,  for  it  is  a  paradise  for  sketching,  but  I  did 
hardly  anything  there,  or  at  Lahore,  on  account  of 
the  Handbook  work.  I  found  the  days  were  all 
twenty-four  hours  too  short :  what  time  I  had  to 
sketch  only  resulted  in  failure,  which  was  a  sad 
pity,  for  it  is  a  quite  unique  place.  In  spite  of  its 
being  such  an  extremely  modern  city — and  a  place 
of  to-day,  rather  than  of  yesterday — its  solid  pros- 
perity was  all  of  a  purely  native  and  leisurely 
character,  with  hardly  a  touch  of  the  West  about 
it,  and  the  town  and  the  people  alone  are  all  most 
picturesque  in  themselves.  Nothing,  however,  that 
I  have  ever  seen  can  compare  with  the  Golden 
Temple,  in  its  own  particular  way,  and  it  is  quite 
as  impossible  to  describe  adequately  its  towers  and 
minarets  and  other  sacred  spots  and  things,  in  and 
around  its  precincts,  as  it  would  be  to  describe  a 
beautiful  dream.  The  whole  thing  is  like  a  dream, 
too  strange  and  in  some  ways  too  beautiful  to 
describe. 

2Q 


3o6  AMRITZAR 

Amritzar  is  the  religious  headquarters  of  the 
Sikhs  ;  and  the  centre  of  the  town,  towards  which 
sets  the  tide  in  the  crowded  streets,  is  the  celebrated 
Golden  Temple,  standing  on  an  islet  in  the  middle 
of  the  great  Sacred  Tank  ;  this  gives  its  name 
Amritt-sar,  or  Pool  of  the  Water  of  Life,  to  the 
town.  It  takes  some  time  for  a  Western  Christian 
— into  whose  religious  life  water,  with  all  its  sym- 
bolism, only  enters  in  the  very  elementary  sprink- 
lingbestowed  in  the  initial  baptismal  rite — to  grasp 
fully  the  immense  part  water  and  bathing  play  in 
the  religion  and  worship  of  the  Oriental,  and  more 
especially  in  that  of  the  Hindu.  The  sacred  tank 
is  really  as  important  as  the  Temple,  and  perhaps 
more  essential  to  their  devotion.  Prayers  may  be 
said  in  the  most  rudimentary  shrine — in  a  dumpy 
black  temple  under  a  banyan  tree,  or  in  a  sacred 
grove  ;  before  a  tree  or  a  marigold-wreathed  black 
stone  iDedaubed  with  red  paint,  or  chipped  rudely 
to  a  blunt  point;  in  the  open  under  the  horizontal 
rays  of  the  rising  sun  :  but  all  acts  of  ceremonial 
worship — and  even  the  morning  prayer  from  the 
Veda,  prescribed  to  all  high-caste  worshippers — 
demand  a  preceding  ceremonial  bathing  in  the 
cleansing  stream  or  tank.  It  matters  little  that  the 
water  is  anything  but  clean,  strewn  with  floating 
flowers  and  leaves  from  the  worship  of  past  days, 
and,  as  at  Benares,  contaminated  in  many  other 
ways — the  idea  is  there.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  so 
closely  is  washing  bound  up  with  their  religion, 
that  Hindu  converts,  in  leaving  their  old  faith, 
leave  off"  the  useful  habit,  and  "want  of  cleanli- 


THE    GOLDEN    TEMPLE  307 

ness  "  is  mentioned  by  missionaries  as  one  of  the 
defects  of  Hindu  Christians. 

The  initiated  Sikhs  enter  the  brotherhood  by 
baptism,  so  it  seems  quite  fitting  that  when  their 
apostle  Ram  Das,  the  fourth  Guru,  founded  the 
sacred  city  in  1570 — on  a  site  devoted  to  the  pur- 
pose by  Akbar — he  should  have  set  their  temple, 
their  Mount  Sion,  not  on  a  hill,  but  in  the  middle  of 
an  ancient  artificial  tank ;  this  he  restored,  leaving 
it  to  his  son  Arjun  Guru,  the  compiler  of  the 
Granth,  to  complete  the  great  temple,  and  see  a 
flourishing  town  spring  up  around  this  focus  of  the 
aspirations  of  the  brotherhood. 

By  this  time  the  Sikhs  had  entered  the  troubled 
paths  of  politics,  and  they  paid  the  penalty  when  in 
1 76 1  the  Mohammedans  destroyed  the  town,  blew 
up  the  temple,  and  desecrated  its  foundations  by 
bathing  them  in  bullocks'  blood.  The  Sikhs,  how- 
ever, soon  possessed  themselves  of  it  again,  and 
when  in  1802  Ranjit  Sing  seized  Amritzar,  from  a 
rival  faction  of  his  brotherhood,  he  spared  neither 
pains  nor  the  splendid  palaces  and  tombs  of  his 
predecessors  in  Lahore — to  enrich  and  glorify  the 
**  Darbar  Sahib,"  or  Great  Temple,  of  the  com- 
munity. 

The  Shrine  is  led  up  to,  from  the  west,  by  a  mag- 
nificent gateway  with  silver  doors.  Through  this 
the  pilgrim  enters,  to  find  himself  confronted  by  a 
literally  dazzling  vision,  for  the  temple  is  covered 
from  the  tops  of  its  many  domes  to  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  ground — walls,  roofs,  cupolas,  and 
all — with    plates    of   gold    on    copper.    All    this 


3o8  AMRITZAR 

shimmering  glory  '*  shines  in  the  sun  like  a  blazing 
altar,"  and  is  then  reflected  in  the  dancing  grey- 
green  water  of  the  oblong  pool,  in  the  centre  of 
which  it  is  set,  and  is  made  more  brilliant  by  the 
beautiful  white  marble  terrace — inlaid  with  coloured 
marble  from  Jaipur — framing  the  sacred  tank, 
whence  steps,  every  here  and  there,  descend  to  the 
water's  edge.  A  marble  causeway  leads  across  the 
pool  to  the  island  platform  of  the  little  temple,  a 
marble  balustrade  on  either  hand,  and  tall  columns 
with  gilt  lamps  surmounting  them,  rise  above  the 
crowd  of  flower-laden  pilgrims  that  continually 
streams  across.  Around  the  marble  pavement,  bor- 
dering the  pool,  are  the  Bunggas  or  palaces  and 
chapels  of  Sikh  chiefs — Rajas  and  Maharajas — 
who  come, from  time  to  time,  to  pay  their  devoirs  at 
the  shrine:  and  sitting  on  the  wide  footway  of  the 
terrace  which  skirts  the  palaces  below,  under  tem- 
porary shelters,  are  sellers  of  flowers,  charms,  and 
rosaries,  and  such  like  gauds.  In  old  days,  every 
Sikh  carried  a  formidable  spear-head  or  quoit  in 
his  head-dress;  but  now  they  content  themselves, 
as  a  rule,  with  miniature  copies  in  their  pugarees  : 
only  fanatical  Akalis  go  about  crowned  with  full- 
sized  chakkas.  The  miniature  weapons  are  also 
for  sale  beside  the  marigold  and  jasmine  flowers. 
The  Golden  Temple  is  a  small,  square,  rather  ir- 
regular building,  that  has  been  compared  to  St. 
Mark's  at  Venice,  and  certainly  there  is  a  resem- 
blance in  the  manner  that  the  first  sight  of  it,  across 
the  wide  square,  bursts  upon  one,  and  in  the  way 
it  is  enriched  with  the  spoils  of  older  generations 


THE    HOLY   OF    HOLIES  309 

and  cities  :  six  or  eight  feet  from  the  ground,  the 
sheets  of  gold  give  way  to  an  encrustation  of 
marbles,  carved  and  inlaid  with  flowers  and  birds  in 
precious  stones,  that  come  from  Jehangir's  palace 
and  tomb  and  other  Mohammedan  buildings. 

No  shoe  is  allowed  to  enter  the  temple  precincts. 
My  yellow-legged  policeman-guide  took  my  boots 
off  at  the  outer  gate,  and  had  my  feet  swathed  in 
voluminous  coverings  of  red  cloth,  tied  about  my 
ankles  ;  but  even  with  these,  one  must  not  venture 
to  enter  the  temple,  except  by  one  particular  door, 
and  then,  must  not  penetrate  beyond  a  few  paces, 
for  fear  of  desecrating  the  holy  place.  This  conces- 
sion even  would  not  be  granted  by  the  Sikhs  to 
any  one  but  their  conquerors.  I  found  I  must  not 
so  much  as  rest  my  foot,  on  the  edge  of  the  door- 
ways, in  the  other  three  sides  :  not  even  to  stretch 
inwards,  and  copy  a  pattern  upon  the  silver  doors. 
It  is  a  picturesque  sight  which  greets  one  on  enter- 
ing the  precincts  by  the  permitted  door.  The  in- 
terior of  the  temple  is  a  small  square  chamber, 
surmounted  by  a  dome  and  profusely  decorated 
with  painting  and  gilding.  Under  a  canopy,  on  the 
east  side  sits,  on  the  floor,  the  venerable  high  priest 
in  white  robes,  with  a  great  cushion,  or  ottoman,  in 
front  of  him.  Upon  this  he  rests  the  Granth,  or 
Sacred  Book — when  he  has  taken  it  out  of  various 
embroidered  wrappings — and  he  reads  aloud  from 
this  from  time  to  time,  or  else  receives  in  silence 
the  offerings  of  the  pilgrims :  they  come  in  a  con- 
stant stream,  and,  if  they  do  not  give  directly  to 
him,  cast  their  offerings  of  cowries,  coins,  or  flowers 


3IO  AMRITZAR 

— for  the  temple — into  a  sheet  spread  out,  to  re- 
ceive them,  in  the  centre  of  the  floor.  Then,  taking 
their  places  amongst  the  crowd,  they  squat  down 
around  the  sheet  in  a  ring  and  chant  verses  out  of 
the  sacred  book,  to  the  sound  of  string  music  from 
quaint  citharas,  played  by  four  or  five  old  musicians 
seated  in  a  corner  at  one  side,  whilst  other  priests 
wave  fans  above  the  Sacred  Book.  Under  the  dome 
above  is  a  chamber  where  it  is  said  the  Guru,  the 
founder  of  the  temple,  and  his  successors,  used  to  sit 
and  meditate:  this  little  place,  like  the  other  sacred 
spots,  is  swept  out  with  a  broom  of  peacock's 
feathers,  which  was  the  only  movable  object  in  this 
shrine  on  my  visit.  The  marvellous  treasures  of 
gold  and  silver  poles  and  maces  and  jewelled  cano- 
pies, and  pearl  and  diamond  ornaments,  used  when 
the  Book  is  carried  in  procession,  are  kept  above  the 
entrance  gateway ;  and  the  gilded  sacred  ark,  con- 
taining the  vessels  for  the  initiatory  rite  and  the 
swordof  GuruGovind,  are  laid  byin  another  shrine, 
where  the  neophytes  are  baptized  and  initiated  into 
thebrotherhood,by  a  quaint  symbolic  ceremonial  in 
which  water  and  steel,  bread  and  honey,  play  a  part. 
I  made  a  sketch  of  the  temple  from  the  causeway 
leading  to  it,  but  I  was  somewhat  handicapped  in 
my  work  by  the  fact  that  I  was  not  allowed  to  sit 
down  except  on  the  pavement.  I  had  provided  my- 
self with  a  campstool,  but,  on  attempting  to  make 
use  of  it,  several  persons  in  authority  at  once  rushed 
to  me  and  remonstrated.  It  was  too  great  a  liberty 
to  take,  in  so  sacred  a  spot,  and  was  considered  an 
act  of  desecration,  so  I  had  no  course  but  to  sub- 


THE  GOLDEN  TEMPLE,  AMRITZAR 

"  The  pilgrim  enters  through  a  magnificent  gateway 
to  find  himself  confronted  by  a  dazzling  vision,  for 
the  temple  is  covered  from  the  tops  of  its  domes  to 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  ground  with  plates  of 
gilded  copper.  All  this  shimmering  glory  '  shines  in  the 
sun  Hke  a  blazing  altar,'  and  is  reflected  in  the  dancing 
grey-green  water  of  the  pool — in  the  centre  of  which 
it  is  set.  A  marble  causeway  leads  across  the  pool  to 
the  island  platform  of  the  little  temple  with  a  marble 
balustrade  on  either  hand  ;  and  tall  columns,  with  gilt 
jamps  surmounting  them,  rise  above  the  crowd  of 
flower-laden  pilgrims  continually  streaming  across." 


THE    BABA   ATAL   TOWER  311 

mit.  This  objection  to  the  use  of  a  chair  is  not 
confined  to  the  precincts  of  the  Golden  Temple ;  I 
met  with  it  in  other  sacred  places  as  well,  and 
amongst  the  Mohammedans:  theuseofan  umbrella 
for  shelter,  from  sun  or  rain,  is,  in  such  places, 
equally  objectionable  to  the  native  mind. 

Beyond,  on  the  furthersideof  the  tank,  risetwo  tall 
minarets  and  a  quaintly  picturesque  tower  of  seven 
or  eight  stories  high;  this  is  the  Baba  Atal Tower, 
and  it  contains  the  tomborashes  of  Atal  Rai  the  son 
of  Guru  Govind.  He  is  said  to  have  miraculously 
restored  a  child  to  life,  and  being  reproved,  by  the 
Guru,  for  using  supernatural  powers  in  this  w^ay, 
instead  of  only  for  the  attainment  of  purity  and 
holiness  of  life,  he  said,  that  as  he  had  withdrawn 
a  life  which  the  Deity  required,  he  would  yield  up 
his  own  instead,  and  so  lay  down  and  died. 

Devotees,  on  entering  his  shrine,  make  offerings 
of  bread  or  flowers,  and  falling  down,  before  the 
step  of  the  platform  upon  which  the  tomb  rests, 
shampoo  the  step,  in  an  odd  manner,  with  their 
hands.  I  went  up  the  staircase,  and  a  wooden  ladder, 
some  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet  to  the  summit,  and 
there  I  got  a  grand,  though  map-like,  view  of  the 
town  with  its  temples,  set  about  with  green  spaces 
and  avenues  of  trees,  and  across  the  plain  to  the 
misty  mountains.  Amongst  the  woods  a  mile  away 
I  sawSt.  Paul'sChurch:  a  friend  of  mine,  Miss  Pol- 
lock, worked  here  as  a  missionary,  and  I  believe 
Amritzar  is  a  strong  centre  of  work  amongst  the 
zenanas.  The  great  garden  of  thirty  acres  which  lies 
about  the  base  of  the  tower,  is  full  of  orange,  pome- 


312  AMRITZAR 

granate,  and  other  taller  trees,  and  in  them  were 
clusters  of  great  bats,  or  flying  foxes,  hanging  from 
the  branches.  My  guide  told  me  that  the  people 
believed  these  creatures  were  the  ghosts  of  departed 
priests,  because  they  hang  about  all  day  and  do 
nothing. 

Apart  from  the  interest  of  the  temple,  I  was  glad 
to  see  the  Sikhs  in  their  headquarters — at  home  so 
to  speak  ;  but  somehow  I  was  a  little  disappointed 
with  their  appearance :  for  they  do  not  all  show 
evidence  of  the  stately,  manly  character,  which  has 
carried  their  name  far  and  wide,  as  do  the  picked 
specimens  one  sees  elsewhere.  Amongst  them  there 
was  a  great  sprinkling  of  Pathans,  and  rough, 
hardy,  picturesque-looking  men  from  the  moun- 
tains, clad  in  coarse  garments  and  furs.  They  were 
usually  traders  from  the  north-Kashmiris,  Afghans, 
Bokhariots,  Beluchis,  Persians,  Tibetans,  Yark- 
andis — who  bring  down  the  raw  materials  of  the 
shawls  and  carpets  for  which  Amritzar  is  famous, 
and  also  fine  specimens  of  their  own  national 
manufactures  and  embroideries.  I  spent  an  hour 
bargaining  for  some  praying  carpets  and  a  bit  of 
crimson  silk,  embroidered  with  rows  of  blue  and 
orange  peacocks,  which  took  my  fancy,  before,  late 
at  night,  I  tore  myself  away  from  Amritzar. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THANESAR:  THE  CRADLE  OF  THE 
HINDU  RACE 

Leslie  Smith  had  given  me  such  an  interesting 
account  of  Thanesar,  where  last  year  he  spent  some 
time  as  Deputy  Commissioner,  that  I  determined 
to  stop  there  on  the  way  from  Amballa  to  Delhi. 
It  required  a  little  arrangement  to  manage  this,  as, 
though  Thanesar  was  on  a  new  direct  railway  line, 
the  trains  did  not  run  conveniently.  Finally  we 
decided  to  go  by  road  :  my  host  drove  me  thirteen 
miles  in  his  tum-tum,  or  dogcart,  and  then, 
following  Father  Benson's  example,  we  took  to 
native  ekkas. 

It  was  very  cold  when  we  left  Amballa  at 
6.30  A.M.  by  the  grand  trunk  road  which  links 
Calcutta  to  Peshawur.  This  road,  for  the  greater 
part  of  its  one  thousand  five  hundred  miles,  runs 
under  a  double  avenue  of  mango,  sisso  *  or  acacia 
trees  ;  quaint  old-world  vehicles  creak  and  groan 
along  it  in  a  continual  stream,  and  perpetually 
changing  groups  of  strange,  interesting  wayfarers 
pass  across  the  flickering  light  and  shadow  of  its 
dusty  track.  Along  this  great  avenue  we  drove,  in 
the  early  morning  light,  in  many  places  on  an  em- 

*  Dalbergia  sisso  Roxb. 


314  THANESAR 

bankment,  a  protection  against  the  floods  ;  between 
the  bolls  of  the  acacia  or  tamarind  trees,  we  had 
glimpses  of  the  sky-encircled  plain,  with  wide 
stretches  of  waving  green  wheat,  from  which  rose, 
like  dark  islands,  the  little  mud  villages :  they 
stand  on  low  mounds,  inside  high  stone  walls  that 
serve  as  a  defence  from  outside  attack  and  an  en- 
closure for  thecattle.  Beside  the  village  liesthepond 
or  tank,  excavated  to  form  sun-dried  mud  walls  : 
here  come  the  women,  with  children  astride  their 
hip,  for  the  day's  supply  of  water,  which  they  filter 
through  a  corner  of  their  veils  into  the  brass  water- 
pots,  before  they  set  them  on  their  stately  heads. 

John  Lawrence  once  overcame  one  of  these 
walled  village  communites  which  had  too  long 
obstinately  refused  to  pay  arrears  of  land  tax, 
by  the  peaceful  expedient  of  posting  on  the  tracks 
leading  to  the  pastures  small  knots  of  police,  who 
turned  back  into  the  village  the  lowing  cattle,  as 
they  issued  from  the  gates  at  dawn.  Before  midday 
the  inhabitants  capitulated,  and,  without  his  having 
to  bring  the  guns  into  action — always  with  him  the 
last  resource — the  long  overdue  taxes  were  paid. 

It  was  in  this  district  that  John  Lawrence  laid 
the  foundations  of  his  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  needs  and  character  of  the  agricultural  native. 
For  two  years  he  lived  here,  as  Acting  Collector- 
Magistrate,  almost  continually  in  the  saddle,and  on 
terms  of  great  intimacy  with  these  sturdy  farmers 
and  native  gentry  :  he  adopted  much  of  their  habits 
and  costume  and  acquired  an  extraordinary  degree 
of  intimacy  with  their  language,  which  he  used  so 


THE    JATS  315 

habitually  that  at  one  time  his  English  seemed 
almost  forgotten. 

The  Jats,  who  form  the  bulk  of  the  population 
here,  are  a  handsome,  tall,  strong,  manly  race  of 
northern  origin.  They  show  an  interesting  dis- 
content with  Hinduism,  and  are  mostly  Sikhs 
or  Mohammedans.  Strongly  attached  to  their 
village  communities  and  land,  they  make  splendid 
soldiers,  and  cultivate  their  flat,  green  and  fertile 
country  with  careful  industry.  The  whole  country 
is  quite  flat,  no  wooded  hills  rise  above  the  wav- 
ing sea  of  green  young  wheat  or  break  the  horizon, 
which  runs  in  a  complete  circle  like  that  of  the  sea. 
The  moisture  from  not  distant  streams  gives 
freshness  and  beauty  to  the  land  :  there  is  a 
''drowsy  buzz  of  small  life  in  hot  sunshine,  a 
cooing  of  doves,  and  a  sleepy  drone  of  well-wheels 
across  the  fields  "  as  the  slow  oxen  circle  round 
the  well,  sending  runnels  of  fresh  water  on  to  the 
thirsty  land.  A  few  years  back  the  Punjab  seemed, 
I  am  told,  to  be  on  the  eve  of  a  great  advance  in 
material  prosperity.  Even  desert  wastes  were 
beginning  to  blossom  in  response  to  the  magnifi- 
cent irrigation  schemes  of  the  Government,  and 
in  the  virgin  soil  the  wheat,  it  is  said,  grew  higher 
than  a  man's  head  ;  but  the  plague,  which,  since 
the  days  of  the  Moguls,  had  not  been  known  here, 
spread,  in  1897,  from  Bombay  to  the  Punjab, 
and  has  since  completely  clouded  this  bright 
prospect.  Last  year  hardly  a  village  was  spared  ; 
in  some  districts  agriculture  was  at  a  standstill 
and  the  crops  rotted  on  the  ground,  and  in  the 


3i6  THANESAR 

first  six  months  of  1905  one  in  every  seventy- five 
of  the  population  succumbed  to  the  ravages  of 
this  terrible  scourge.  I  am  assured  by  a  high 
authority  that  no  such  devastating  epidemic  has 
occurred  since  the  fourteenth  century,  and  that 
whereas  during  the  first  year  of  the  outbreaks  in 
India,  Sept.  '96  to  Sept.  '97,  the  deaths  amounted 
to  30,000,  the  fatal  cases  in  the  first  six  months  of 
1905  often  exceeded  40,000  a  week.  The  total 
mortality  in  India  from  plague  in  1904  was 
1,040,000,  while  in  1905  from  Jan.  i  to  Apr.  29 
687,705  deaths  from  plague  were  registered. 

At  Shahabad  we  left  the  tum-tum,  got  a  frugal 
breakfast  at  the  rest-house,  and  having  stowed  our 
legs  away  in  the  two  ekkas  awaiting  us,  drove  off 
at  a  rattling  pace.  The  ponies  which  draw  these 
ekkas  are  weedy,  unpromising-looking  brutes,  with 
no  chests,  but,  with  light  loads  and  for  short  dis- 
tances, they  are  very  fast.  The  seat  of  an  ekka  is 
of  canvas,  laced  together  near  the  front :  it  is  ideal 
for  the  cross-legged  native,  but  not  satisfactory  to 
the  European  ;  for  him,  one  would  suppose,  there 
could  be  no  more  uncomfortable  conveyance.  How- 
ever, my  host  introduced  me  to  a  capital  dodge, 
which  consisted  in  getting  part  of  the  canvas  un- 
laced, and  hanging  one's  legs  down  inside :  the 
result  was  eminently  satisfactory. 

We  started  briskly  and  seemed  to  fly  past  the 
milestones,  covering  the  whole  sixteen  miles  at 
the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour.  The  last  part  of  the 
way,  when  we  left  the  trunk  road  and  struck  into 
the  old  Mogul  road  to  the  west,  is  very  rough, 


THE    MAHABARATA  317 

for,  though  Thanesar  is  one  of  the  oldest,  most 
famous  towns  in  India,  and  was  once  a  centre,  not 
only  of  religious  interest  but  of  trade  with  the 
north,  the  main  stream  of  modern  Indian  life  leaves 
it  on  one  side.  It  was,  however,  very  amusing  to 
watch  the  game  in  the  jungle,  on  either  side  of  the 
road,  and  the  number  and  the  variety  of  the  birds 
we  saw  as  we  passed  along  was  quite  extraordinary. 
Saras,  great  grey  cranes,  paddy-birds,  parrots, 
doves,  king-crows,  etc. — these  were  innumerable 
and  all  as  tame  as  possible:  even  the  jackals  came 
close  up  to  the  roadside,  and  sat  down  complacently 
to  watch  us  pass. 

Thanesar  lies  in  the  centre  of  Kurakshetra,  the 
great  plain  between  the  two  "  divine  rivers,"  the 
Saraswati  and  the  Ghaggar,  where  the  battles 
described  in  the  Mahabarata  took  place.  It  is  the 
Holy  Land  of  the  Hindu  faith,  and  it  teems  with 
traditions  of  the  great  conflicts  of  the  five  Pandava 
brothers  and  their  cousins  the  Kauravas  in  the 
fourteenth  century  B.C. 

The  Mahabarata  is  an  immensely  long  epic 
poem  recording  the  exploits  of  those  Hindu  heroes 
of  antiquity,  and,  like  the  Iliad,  it  is  the  source  to 
which  many  tribes  and  chiefs  endeavour  to  trace 
their  ancestors  ;  it  has  always  exercised  great  in- 
fluence over  the  masses  of  the  Hindu  people,  and 
is  still  often  in  their  thoughts  ;  from  its  pages  are 
drawn  many  of  their  religious  ideals.  Its  present 
form  is  evidently  not  that  in  which  it  originally 
took  shape,  as  is  indicated  by  the  name  Vyasa — 
'*  the  arranger,"  given  to  the  traditional  author,  and 


3i8  THANESAR 

it  has  probably  been  worked  over,  more  than  once, 
by  Buddhists  and  Brahmans — to  make  it  square 
with  their  own  individual  doctrines  and  customs, 
for  grotesquely  wild  episodes  occur,  side  by  side 
with  passages  full  of  graceful  pathos,  and  contrast 
strangely  with  the  romantic  love  for  fine  scenery, 
and  with  the  tender  appreciation  of  love  and  devo- 
tion, mercy  and  forgiveness,  which  characterise  the 
whole. 

The  heroes  of  the  poem,  the  five  Pandava 
brothers,  having  been  dispossessed  of  their  grand- 
father's dominions  by  their  cousins  the  Kauravas, 
established  the  kingdom  of  Delhi  ;  the  King, 
the  eldest  brother,  subsequently  lost  the  kingdom 
over  a  game  of  dice  ;  and  as  a  penalty  he  retired 
for  twelve  years  into  the  forests.  His  return  to 
public  life  was  followed  by  a  series  of  fierce  battles, 
ending  in  the  annihilation  of  the  Kauravas.  The 
Pandavas,  however,  found  the  game  of  life  had  not 
been  worth  the  candle  ;  and  the  king,  with  his  four 
brothers,  accompanied,  like  Tobias,  by  a  faithful 
dog,  set  out  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Mount  Mesu, 
Indra's  Heaven,  hoping  that  there,  at  any  rate,  he 
would  find  full  satisfaction.  Before  he  reached  the 
gates,  however,  all  had  dropped  back  and  given  up 
the  quest  except  the  faithful  dog,  and  he  was  re- 
fused admittance.  The  Pandava  would  not  enter 
without  his  faithful  follower,  or  his  brothers,  who 
were  expiating  their  sins  in  the  nether  world.  Ulti- 
mately Indra  relented,  and  they  were  all  admitted 
to  eternal  bliss  in  a  Paradise  among  the  hidden 
recesses  of  the  Himalayas. 


A    BATTLEFIELD  319 

Few  shrines  now  exist  dedicated  to  the  Pan- 
davas,  but  there  are  traces  of  their  worship 
scattered  over  the  whole  of  India ;  any  marvels 
or  prodigies  are  attributed  to  them. 

Five  rough  stones,  smeared  with  red  paint, 
sometimes  set  up  in  the  fields,  represent  them  as 
guardians  of  the  crops.  Their  characters  are  as 
well  known  and  as  much  venerated  as  ever ;  and 
the  scenes  where  the  great  drama  of  their  lives 
was  played  out  interest  all  Hindus  ;  the  ground 
for  miles  round  Thanesar  is  holy,  and  nearly  four 
hundred  spots  are  consecrated  to  the  memory  of 
incidents  connected  with  the  heroes. 

Ever  since  those  half  mythical  days  the  district 
round  Thanesar  and  Paniput  has  been  the  great 
battlefield  where  the  fate  of  India  has  been  decided. 
Here  was  made  the  most  determined  stand  to  the 
successive  invasions  from  the  north.  It  was  the 
scene  of  victory  when  the  young  Akbar,  the  first 
of  the  great  Moguls,  won  back  the  empire  his  father 
had  lost :  here  the  Persian  invasion  under  Nadir 
Shah  shattered  the  forces  of  the  Moguls,  and 
here  took  place  the  tragic  and  touching  incidents 
of  the  rout  of  the  Mahrattas,  when  the  Afghan, 
Ahmed  Shah,  deprived  them  for  all  time  of  their 
northern  conquests. 

The  town  of  Thanesar  was  sacked  more  than 
once  by  Mohammedans,  and  in  11 94  Shahab-ud- 
din  defeated  Prithvi  Raja  here,  and  subsequently 
swept  away  the  hundreds  of  Hindu  temples  which 
the  Chinese  pilgrims,  at  the  time  of  Alfred  the 
Great,  describe  as  seen  clustered  round  the  ancient 


320  THANESAR 

city,  on  its  mound,  and  the  far-famed  Sacred 
Tank. 

There  are  now  no  Hindu  monuments  left.  The 
Mohammedan  town  and  fort  are  in  ruins,  but  once  it 
was  clearly  a  place  of  considerable  importance.  The 
most  conspicuous  and  perfect  building  now  is  the 
octagonal  tomb  of  Shekh  Chihli — of  cafd-att-lait 
marble,  with  a  white  marble  dome  and  latticed 
windows.  This  stands  upon  a  small  octagonal  plat- 
form, with  a  low  parapet,  raised  on  a  high  square 
terrace ;  small  domed  pavilions,  formerly  covered 
with  Nakshi  work  stand,  one  at  each  corner  and 
two  on  each  side  ;  on  the  west  side,  however,  they 
give  place  to  another  tomb,  an  oblong  building  of 
drab  sandstone,  with  deep  eaves  or  drip-stones. 
To  the  south  of  the  raised  terrace  is  a  small  brick 
courtyard  and  mosque,  and,  within  a  stone's  throw, 
a  beautiful  little  red  sandstone  building — the  Lai 
Musjid.  Here  the  eight  carved  columns,  with  flat 
domes  between  and  the  south  window  are  all 
beautifully  carved,  and  reminded  me  of  the  work  at 
Fatehpur  Sikri.  Some  of  the  architraves  of  the 
houses,  in  the  rather  squalid  town,  are  beautifully 
carved;  otherwise  there  is  nothing  to  see — with  the 
exception,  perhaps,  of  a  large  house,  near  the  en- 
trance to  the  town,  covered  with  Hindu  frescoes, 
some  in  low  relief  and  very  rude  and  uncouth. 

The  raison  d'etre  of  the  whole  place,  however,  is 
the  famous  old  Hindu  sacred  tank;  this  still  exists, 
and,  on  the  occasion  of  an  eclipse,  continues  to  be 
— as  it  has  been  from  the  earliest  times — the  ren- 
dezvous of  thousands  of  devout  Hindus,  seeking 


PILGRIMS  321 

purification  from  past  transgressions  by  bathing 
and  prayer.  This  shallow  lake,  measuring  about 
3500  by  1900  ft.,  is  fed  by  the  sacred  waters  of  the 
Saraswati  river,  the  first  sacred  river  venerated  in 
India.  No  crime  was  too  black  to  be  washed  white 
in  its  waters.  Into  this  lake,  so  runs  the  legend, 
flows  at  the  time  of  the  eclipse  the  water  of  all  other 
sacred  pools  and  rivers  in  India.  He,  therefore,  who 
then  bathes  in  its  waters  obtains  the  virtue  and 
merits  which  would  be  acquired  by  bathing  in  all. 
At  an  eclipse  not  long  ago,  it  was  computed  that  as 
many  as  200, 000  people  had  visited  these  miraculous 
waters  of  cleansing  ;  some  of  these  trusting  souls, 
come  from  places  at  as  great  a  distance  and  as 
far  apart  as  the  Himalayas  and  Cape  Comorin. 
Thousands  of  families  come  in  railway  cattle 
trucks,  many  in  bullock  waggons — but  the  greater 
number  of  these  patient  saffron-clad  pilgrims,  de- 
sirous to  save  their  souls  alive,  still  trudge  the 
weary  miles  on  foot,  in  priest-led  processions, bear- 
ing bamboos  with  fluttering  flags,and  chanting  the 
songs  their  fathers  sang  as  they  toiled  along  the 
selfsame  road  to  Thanesar.  The  twice-born  Brah- 
mans  and  yogis,  of  course,  reap  rich  harvests, 
as  an  offering  is  an  essential  part  of  the  puri- 
fication, and  every  pilgrim  leaves  something  of 
value  behind  ;  the  rich  Raja  may  leave  a  wife,  the 
poor  man  an  article  of  clothing,  and  the  women 
fling  their  jewelled  bracelets  far  into  the  waters  of 
the  sacred  pool,  where,  no  doubt,  they  do  not  long 
remain ! 

The  authorities  watch  over  the  pilgrims  with 


322  THANESAR 

minute  and  detailed  care ;  special  trains  are  run, 
wells  are  dug,  roads  are  made,  even  turfed  over,  I 
believe,  to  save  them  from  the  dust,  and  lost  and 
straying  children  are  herded  and  cried  by  a  bellman. 
As  the  time  of  the  eclipse  draws  near,  expectant 
multitudes  collect  on  the  brink — like  the  throngs 
atthepoolofBethesda — patiently  but  eagerly  await- 
ingthefateful.mysterious  moment,to  stepdown  and 
be  cleansed.  In  the  dangerous  rush  at  the  critical 
time  awkward  accidents  occur,  and  the  old  and 
helpless  sometimes  go  under,  and  have  to  be 
rescued  by  some  stalwart  representative  of  the 
paternal  Government. 

In  spite  of  all  precautions — hospitals,  isolation 
camps  and  doctors — these  gatherings  are  always 
rather  anxious  work.  A  great  pilgrimage  had 
been  expected  there  the  previous  June,  just  at  the 
end  of  the  dry  season,  when  the  hot  weather  was  at 
its  height;  but  those  responsible  for  the  safety  and 
well-being  of  the  pious  throngs  knew  that  if  they 
assembled  there,  in  that  weather  and  at  that  time, 
an  outbreak  of  cholera  or  some  other  epidemic 
would  certainly  ensue.  There  was  hardly  any  water 
in  the  tank — and  that  little  was  of  the  most  un- 
desirable description — and  for  some  reason  con- 
siderable difficulty  also  lay  in  the  way  of  supplying 
the  multitude  with  food  ;  fortunately,  with  the  aid 
of  innumerabletelegramsflashed  to  station-masters 
and  others  all  over  India,  the  assembly  of  pilgrims 
was  prevented. 

It  is  said  that  the  necessary  sanitary  precautions 
insisted  on   by  their  Western  rulers,  with  their 


WATER-FOWL  323 

prying  eyes  and  inquiring  noses,  have  done  more 
to  counteract  the  deeply  ingrained  native  habit  of 
pilgrimage  than  the  taxes  on  pilgrimages  levied 
by  the  Moguls,  in  spite  of  the  increased  facilities 
for  reaching  the  goal. 

The  temples  which  once  surrounded  the  tank 
have  now  for  the  most  part  fallen  into  decay,  and 
their  ruins  are  overshadowed  by  great  trees.  Long 
flights  of  steps  lead  down  to  the  water's  edge,  and, 
on  the  north  side  a  causeway  stretches  out  into  the 
middle  of  the  sacred  lake,  where,  on  a  little  island, 
stands  the  most  perfect  temple  remaining.  Close 
to  this  causeway  is  another  parallel  to  it,  and  they 
both  stretch  out  to  other  islands  and  other  ruins 
beyond,  in  the  middle  of  the  lake. 

The  whole  neighbourhood  of  the  water  is  alive 
with  water-fowl,  from  the  pelican  to  the  snipe.  I 
never  saw  so  many  and  such  variety  all  together. 
We  sat  down,  on  one  of  the  further  islands,  to 
sketch  and  eat  our  lunch,  and  it  was  then  that  we 
first  spotted  the  snowy  pelicans  basking  on  the 
bank,  but  we  were  not  quite  sure  of  them  until 
we  sent  a  man  round  to  the  east,  to  put  them 
up  :  then  there  was  no  mistake  ;  they  came  sailing 
along  on  their  great  wings  quite  close  to  where  we 
sat.  Then  there  were  storks  and  cranes  with  long 
drooping  plumes,  and  coot,  dabchick  and  duck 
swimming  placidly  about  or  standing,  as  it  were, 
on  their  heads,  in  the  shallow  water  so  that  only 
rows  of  pointed  tails  met  our  view,  as  they  investi- 
gated something  interesting  in  the  mud  at  the 
bottom.  I  was  interested  in  a  curious  bird  called 


324  THANESAR 

the  snake-bird,  which  swims  about  with  the  water 
over  his  back,  so  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  seen 
above  it  but  his  head  and  long  neck  ;  in  the  dis- 
tance this  looks  for  all  the  world  like  a  snake 
gliding  in  great  loops  over  the  face  of  the  water. 

At  Thanesar  station  I  joined  the  train  in  which 
my  companion  came  from  Amballa.  We  passed 
nothing  of  any  consequence  on  our  way  to  Delhi, 
except  the  small  walled  town  of  Kurnool,  on  our 
right,  and  further  on,  to  our  left,  Paniput.  Here, 
crowds  of  well-dressed,  unsophisticated  natives, 
some  of  them  very  picturesque,  had  congregated  to 
see  the  train,  which  was  still  a  nine  days'  wonder. 

This  Holy  Land  of  the  Hindu  faith  was  also  the 
first  permanent  home  of  the  twice-born  castes  and 
of  their  earliest  princes  and  sages.  It  is  the  spot 
where  their  religion  and  caste  system  took  shape ; 
the  cradle,  in  fact,  of  the  Hindu  race. 

The  original  races  of  India  consisted  of  the  non- 
Aryan,  aboriginal,  casteless  tribes,  who  inhabit  the 
jungles  or  hill  districts  :  Bhils  in  the  Vindhya 
Mountains,  Santals  in  Lower  Bengal,  Kohls  in  the 
Central  Provinces.  The  Aryans  professing  the 
Brahmanic  faith  followed,  and  to  them  belong  all 
the  higher  or  "twice-born  "  castes,  who  wear  the 
sacred  thread.  The  religion  of  the  aboriginal 
tribes  is  described  in  the  Indian  census  as  "Ani- 
mism," and  includes  a  variety  of  primitive  cults. 
They  believe  in  a  supreme  spirit,  who  is  beneficent, 
and  may  be  relied  on  to  act  according  to  precedent 
withoutanyspecial  attention  ontheir  part ;  butthere 
are  certain  things — stones,  trees,  animals,  fetishes 


A  TEMPLE  IN  THE  TANK  AT 
THANESAR 

"  This  famous  sacred  lake  has  been  from  the  earliest 
times  the  rendezvous  of  thousands  of  devout  Hindus, 
seeking  purification  by  bathing  and  prayer.  The 
temples  which  once  surrounded  it  have  now  fallen 
into  decay,  and  are  overshadowed  by  great  trees 
Long  flights  of  steps  lead  down  to  the  water's  edge, 
and  on  the  north  side  a  causeway  stretches  out  into 
the  lake,  where,  on  a  little  island,  stands  the  most 
perfect  temple  that  now  remains." 


CASTELESS   TRIBES  325 

or  tools,  the  spirits  of  the  departed  or  men  or  women 
considered  specially  holy  or  powerful— all  of  which 
they  believe  to  be  possessed  of  occult  power,  con- 
trolling the  course  of  nature  and  the  human  mind  ; 
these,  as  their  probable  intentions  are  uncertain, 
require  to  be  propitiated.  Them  therefore,  they 
worship  with  sacrifices  and  varied  rites,  and  when 
they  do  not  succeed  in  obtaining  their  end  by  these 
means,  upbraid  the  delinquent  in  no  measured 
terms. 

These  non-Aryan  races  have,  to  a  great  extent, 
been  transformed  into  the  lower  Hindu  castes  ;  and 
under  the  stress  of  the  antagonism  and  assimila- 
tion of  the  two  races,  Hinduism  has  developed.  It  is 
a  religion  of  marvellous  vitality  and  has  withstood 
the  impact  of  more  than  one  great  faith.  Zoroas- 
trianism.  Buddhism  andMohammedanism  haveall 
made  converts,  but  have  been  powerless  to  destroy 
it,  for  it  alters,  endures  and  assimilates  perpetually, 
and  remains  at  the  core  untouched.  It  seems  to  be 
now  changing  again,  in  consequence  of  its  contact 
with  Christianity  and  Western  thought.  The  pro- 
cess of  melting  into  Hinduism  proceeded  slowly  in 
the  past,  but  has  considerably  quickened  since 
British  rule  introduced  material  civilisation  and 
prosperity ;  for  the  first  step  upward  in  the  ladder 
of  Indian  social  life  consists  in  passing  from  the 
ranks  of  the  unclassified  outcast  to  a  definite  posi- 
tion in  the  Hindu  caste  system.  It  is  now  pro- 
ceeding so  rapidly  there  will  soon  be  only  a  small 
remnant  clinging  to  the  aboriginal  rites  and 
customs. 


326  THANESAR 

Dr.  Ramsay  points  out  that  in  the  first  days 
Christianity  took  the  firmest  root  in  those  parts  of 
Asia  Minor  which  were  just  feeling  the  touch  of 
Graeco-Roman  civilisation,  where  men's  minds 
were  in  a  state  of  transition,  awaking  from  stagna- 
tion into  an  attitude  of  expectancy  ;  and  some  of 
those  who  have  studied  the  mind  of  the  East 
believe  that  the  small  remnant  of  the  unsettled 
non-Aryan  races  will  prove  the  pioneers  of  the 
Indian  Church. 

Entrance  into  the  Hindu  social  system  means 
adopting  to  a  great  extent  the  Brahmanic  religion  ; 
and  whilst  he  keeps  most  of  his  old  faiths  and  prac- 
tices, the  social  aspirant  adds  to  them  all  the  essen- 
tial doctrines  and  customs  of  Brahmanism.  These, 
according  to  Sir  Alfred  Lyall,  comprise  acceptance 
of  the  Brahmanic  scriptures  and  traditions  as  the 
standard  of  orthodoxy ;  adoration  of  the  Brahmanic 
gods  and  their  incarnations  ;  veneration  of  the 
sacred  cow  ;  the  recognition  of  the  presence  of  the 
Brahman  as  necessary  to  all  essential  religious  rites: 
as  well  as  amalgamation  in  one  of  the  lower  castes. 
This,  of  course,  carries  with  it  obedience  to  the  rules 
regulating  the  two  great  outward  and  visible  signs 
of  caste  fellowship — intermarriage  and  sharing  of 
food — which  are  the  bonds  uniting  and  isolating 
the  different  groups  or  castes. 

I  had  a  practical  illustration  of  the  working  of 
the  rules  of  caste,  whilst  waiting  at  the  station  for 
the  train  which  was  to  bring  my  companion  and 
the  luggage.  I  thought  I  would  clean  off  a  spot  of 
paint  from — I  think — my  paintbox,  and  seeing  a 


HINDU    PANI  327 

large  iron  pot  full  of  water,  I  put  my  finger  into  it 
for  this  purpose,  upon  which  there  was  no  end  of  a 
hullabulloo :  "  Hindu  pani,  Hindu  pani,"  half  a 
dozen  people  shouted,  and  came  up  and  pointed  and 
gesticulated  around  me.  Without  thought,  I  had 
defiled  their  drinking  water,  which  apparently  had 
come  from  far,  and  laid  myself  open  to  the  fine 
which  is  the  penalty  for  defiling  the  food  of  even 
the  lowest  caste.  A  few  pice,  however,  soon  satis- 
fied the  poor  things  and  put  matters  right  by 
enabling  them  to  send  a  Hindu  pani-wala  to  fetch 
more.  The  Bheesties,  with  brown  goatskin  bags, 
are  generally  Mohammedans,  and  very  rigid  high- 
caste  Hindus  are  usually  careful  to  fetch  water  for 
themselves,  or  to  have  it  fetched  by  their  wives. 
It  is,  of  course,  only  under  the  exigencies  of  pro- 
longed travel  that  there  can  be  any  difficulty  in 
doing  so,  and  then  the  less  rigid  will  take  water 
from  any  Bheestie,but  the  more  scrupulous  may  be 
heard,  when  a  train  halts  at  a  station,  calling 
aloud  for  a  "  Hindu  pani-wala."  This  trifling  inci- 
dent is  significant  of  the  difficulties  which  meet 
the  ignorant  European  in  his  first  approaches  to 
intercourse  with  the  Hindoo — difficulties  which 
seem  to  increase  with  each  endeavour  to  under- 
stand the  native  point  of  view.  It  is  perhaps 
part  of  the  fascination  the  East  exercises  over  so 
many,  that  the  true  methods  and  working  of  its 
inner  mind  and  life  still  have  all  the  attraction  of 
a  mystery. 

Only  by  living,  as  John  Lawrence  did,  really 
amongst  the  people,  can  a  proper  estimate  be  formed 


328  •  THANESAR 

of  the  best  side  of  Indian  character.  In  the  inner 
domestic  life  of  a  people  its  truest,  deepest  character 
always  betrays  itself:  and  those  who  have  the 
deepest  acquaintance  with  the  heart  of  Indian  life, 
under  its  best  aspects,  tell  us  continually  that  the 
family  life — the  solidarity,  mutual  trust  and  affec- 
tion in  a  family  consisting,  perhaps,  of  even  more 
than  a  hundred  persons — is  most  striking.  The  won- 
derful tenderness  of  the  Jat  in  "Kim"  to  his  sick 
child,  is,  we  are  assured,  but  a  faithful  transcript 
from  daily  life  in  the  Punjab:  and  the  intense  mutual 
affection  existing  between  a  man  and  his  mother  is 
equally  touching.  Of  course,  the  relation  between 
husband  and  wife  is  absolutely  one-sided,  and  con- 
sequently— from  the  higher  point  of  view  of 
Christian  civilisation — false  and  distorted.  Such 
supreme  devotion  and  utter  self-abasement  and 
self-sacrifice  as  those  of  the  Hindu  wife  to  her  hus- 
band should  be  accorded  only  to  a  divine  master, 
and,  diverted  to  a  human  object,  they  are  liable  to 
the  gravest  abuse  and  distortion  :  yet  they  are  evi- 
dence of  capacities  which,  if  properly  exercised, 
would  fall  into  line,  and  find  a  place  in  develop- 
ments which  we  can  but  dimly  foreshadow. 

Within  the  caste  and  family  the  standard  of 
honesty  and  honour,  in  business  dealings,  appears 
to  approximate  rather  to  the  estimate  of  early  tra- 
vellers— who  noticed  the  marked  truthfulness  of 
the  natives — than  to  that  shown  in  official  rela- 
tions with  their  present  rulers.  Quite  distant  re- 
lations pay  family  debts  with  scrupulous  honour, 
as  though  they  were  personal ;  they  will  provide  for 


CASTE    REGULATIONS  329 

the  entire  education  of  poorer  relations  :  and  ser- 
vants left  with  the  charge  of  young  orphans  and 
their  property  will  fulfil  the  trust  for  years  with  the 
most  scrupulous  loyalty.  In  the  life  of  the  village 
community,  where  all,  in  virtue  of  their  race,  have 
a  claim  to  a  share  in  the  harvest  (perhaps  consist- 
ing only  of  so  many  handfuls  of  grain,  bundles 
of  straw,  leaves  of  tobacco  or  pods  of  chili),  the 
rights  of  no  one — however  old,  decrepit  or  useless 
— will  ever  be  forgotten.  Members  of  a  caste 
will  take  infinite  trouble  to  help  each  other,  and 
will  undertake  and  carry  out  duties  and  charities, 
which  would  be  quite  impossible  to  execute  with- 
out absolute  mutual  trust,  and  a  recognised  sense 
of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  acting  heads  of 
the  community. 

The  Englishman  usually  comes  across  only  the 
ridiculous  and  vexatious  side  of  caste  regulations 
— he  sees  the  newly  purified  priest  flatten  himself 
against  the  wall  to  avoid  contact  with  the  unclean 
European  ;  or  the  Brahmin,  naked  but  for  his 
waistcloth,  and  the  sacred  thread  of  the  twice-born 
over  his  shoulders,  preparing  his  meal  in  a  small 
square  space,  "  isolated  "  by  a  two-inch  mud-wall 
between  the  world  and  his  purity  ;  then  he  sees 
the  outline  of  a  Western  shadow  cross  the  sacred 
spot,  and  immediately  the  whole  meal — the  cake 
carefully  baked  on  the  ashes,  the  curds  on  the  leaf 
plate,  the  lotaful  of  milk — is  thrown  away  as  un- 
clean. He,  not  unnaturally,  sums  it  all  up  as  non- 
sensical, unpractical,  and  degrading  slavery  to 
senseless,  pettifogging  rules.    He  hears  the  stories 


330  THANESAR 

told  of  perjury  in  the  law  courts,  and  is  assured  by 
civil  servants  of  great  experience,  who  regard  the 
native  with  sympathetic  interest,  that  not  a  single 
native  is  to  be  trusted,  that  corruption  and  bribery 
are  ubiquitous  amongst  all  classes,  from  the  gaol- 
warder  to  the  county-court  judge.  All  this  is,  alas, 
too  true,  and  cannot  be  stated  too  strongly.  But  it 
is  fair  to  remember  that  the  Hindu  has  served  an 
apprenticeship,  through  centuries  of  tyranny,  in  the 
use  of  the  weapons  of  the  oppressed,  and  that  India 
is  not  the  only  land  where  men,  considering  them- 
selves respectable  members  of  society,  have  stan- 
dards for  professional  conduct  which  they  would 
not  apply  in  private  affairs. 

There  are  two  sides  to  native  life;  unfortunately 
the  inner  side  of  the  family  and  caste  life  in  India 
— forming  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  national 
existence — is  that  which  the  Englishman  usually 
sees  least.  John  Lawrence  had  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  two  of  the  most  typical  classes  of  the 
race :  the  agricultural  people  of  the  Punjab,  and 
the  city  population  of  the  big  towns.  No  one 
could  have  fuller  knowledge  of  the  shady  side  of 
India:  his  life  is  filled  with  tales  of  murders, 
dacoity,  and  of  the  duplicity  of  recalcitrant  village 
communities,  as  well  as  of  individuals  ;  but  he  also 
knew  the  wonderful  patience,  sobriety  and  cheer- 
fulness of  the  poor  ;  the  deep  religious  instinct  of 
the  nation  ;  and  the  extraordinary  ease  with  which 
a  man  of  sympathetic  instinct  can  maintain  law 
and  order  amongst  these  'vast  multitudes.  It  is 
interesting  to  see  that  the  underlying  note  struck 


LAWRENCE'S   ATTITUDE  331 

in  his  advice  to  subordinates  or  newcomers  was 
always,  "  Do  not  be  hard  " — *'  You  must  not  be 
high-handed,"  and  that  his  reminiscences  of  his 
own  intercourse  with  natives  were  always  sympa- 
thetic, and  often  abounded  in  evidences  of  great 
and  tender  affection. 


AN   OLD   SIKH 


CHAPTER  XVII 
ALWAR 

When  we  left  Delhi  on  our  way  to  stop  with  the 
Commissioner  at  Ajmere,  we  did  not  know,  owing 
to  conflicting  telegrams,  whether  to  go  on  there 
direct,  or  to  stop  at  Alwar  ;  however,  we  arranged 
that  if  we  found  no  telegram  awaiting  us  at  Alwar 
Station  we  would  remain  there. 

Alwar  is  one  of  the  twenty  native  states  of 
Rajputana,  which  centre  round  the  small  British 
territory  of  Ajmere — Marwar. 

Across  Rajputana,  in  a  diagonal  line  north-east 
and  south-west,  run  the  Aravalis,  a  chain  of 
mountains  interrupted  by  valleys.  To  the  north- 
west of  them  is  a  vast  sandy  desert,  ridged 
with  long,  low  isolated  sandhills  in  parallel  lines. 
To  the  east,  where  lies  Alwar,  hills  and  wooded 
valleys  alternate  with  richly  cultivated  table- 
lands. Great  herds  of  camels,  horses,  and  sheep 
feed  on  the  uplands. 

The  Rajputs  are  the  sole  remaining  represen- 
tatives of  the  most  ancient  political  communities 
of  India.  Before  the  Moslem  invasion  they  ruled 
over  all  the  chief  cities  of  the  North  of  India,  and 
the  rich  plains  of  the  Ganges  to  the  borders  of 


334  ALWAR 

Bengal.  Subdued  by  the  invaders,  some  submitted 
to  the  conqueror's  rule  and  remained  on  the  fertile 
plains,  but  the  pure-blooded  chiefs  and  their  im- 
mediate followers  withdrew  to  the  uplands  ;  and 
there,  in  the  difficult  mountainous  or  sandy  country 
of  central  India,  they  subdued  the  aboriginal  tribes 
and  built  themselves  hill-fortresses,  where  for 
centuries  they  maintained  their  independence,  and 
in  a  career  of  perpetual  forays  and  feuds  retained 
their  character  of  dauntless  warriors.  There  are 
still  a  good  many  of  the  aboriginal  casteless  tribes — 
Bhils  and  Minas — remaining  amongst  the  agricul- 
tural population,  and  the  Rajputs,  though  the 
ruling  race,  are  by  no  means  in  the  majority  ;  and 
are  never  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  but  only  the 
feudal  lords.  The  original  native  dynasties  of 
Rajputana  still  preserve  unaltered  most  of  their 
ancestral  constitution  and  customs,  which  are 
unlike  anything  else  remaining  in  India.  This 
primitive  civilisation  owes  its  continued  existence 
probably  to  the  English,  for,  having  survived  the 
levelling  influence  of  the  Mogul  Empire,  Rajpu- 
tana was,  later  on,  like  the  rest  of  India,  overrun 
by  the  Mahrattas,  and  they  dominated  and  devas- 
tated the  Province,  and  had  nearly  extinguished 
the  clans,  when  the  British  power  intervened,  and 
rescued  Rajistan,  the  land  of  princes,  from  its 
impending  fate. 

As  we  approached  Alwar  we  came  amongst  hills 
of  considerable  height  and  fine  trees,  and  in  the 
fields  and  alongside  of  the  railway  we  passed 
numbers  of  natives.  The  women  were  wearing  the 


A    NATIVE    STATE  335 

brightest  of  dresses — some  of  the  prettiest,  or,  at 
any  rate,  the  most  effective  I  had  seen — chiefly 
dark  red  with  yellow  embroidery.  Many  of  the 
men,  who  were  not  working  in  the  fields,  carried 
long  staves  and  still  longer  guns,  a  sure  sign  that 
we  had  entered  a  native  state. 

On  arriving  at  Alwar  about  4  p.m.  I  made  a 
bolt  for  the  telegraph  office,  but  there  was  no  mes- 
sage for  me,  and  the  question  then  arose,  could  we 
find  accommodation  before  the  train  started  again. 
I  inquired  about  the  Rest-house  and  heard  that  the 
Dak  Bungalow  close  by  was  occupied,  and  no 
room  available  there :  the  Maharaja's  private 
station  was  also  full.  This  put  us  in  a  great 
dilemma.  While  the  train  waited  I  fled  to  the  Dak 
Bungalow  and  found  a  number  of  natives,  none  of 
whom  could  speak  any  language  but  his  own.  One 
of  them,  however,  went  in  and  told  his  master,  the 
temporary  occupant  of  the  Dak  Bungalow,  ''  There 
is  a  sahib  here  who  cannot  speak  English."  His 
master  promptly  came  out,  and  on  my  explaining 
the  difficulty,  as  shortly  as  I  could,  he  said  that  it 
was  quite  true  there  was  no  room.  I  was  turning 
to  hurry  back  and  re-embark  bag  and  baggage  in 
the  train,  which  was  on  the  point  of  starting,  when 
he  exclaimed  :  "  Stay,  there  is  the  tent."  I  jumped 
at  the  word.  "  Tent,"  I  said,  *'  what  tent  ?  "  and  he 
pointed  to  a  very  dusty  affair  in  the  corner  of  the 
compound  of  the  Dak  Bungalow.  I  looked  in  and 
saw  it  would  do  at  a  pinch  and  decided  to  stop.  It 
was  terribly  dusty,  but  we  had  it  cleaned  out,  and 
whilst  we  were  settling  ourselves  my  friend  of  the 


336  ALWAR    ' 

Bungalow — Mr.  Angus  Macdonald — and  his  wife 
gave  us  tea.  He  was  the  Maharaja's  engineer. 
They  and  their  household  were  occupying  the  Dak 
Bungalow  until  a  house  was  made  ready  for  them. 

We  were  saved  from  a  doubtful  picnic  in  our 
dusty  tent  by  their  hospitality,  and  met  at  dinner 
Captain  Tait,  who  has  command  of  the  Maharaja's 
forces,  and  Miss  Abbot,  the  daughter  of  the  resi- 
dent, who  was  staying  with  them. 

Meantime  I  wrote  to  the  Maharaja's  secre- 
tary to  ask  for  a  carriage,  and  a  victoria  and  pair 
soon  appeared.  This  is  the  usual  and  only  mode  of 
procedure  in  these  native  states  :  the  traveller  is 
entirely  dependent  on  the  Maharaja,  who  is  always 
graciously  ready  to  supply  the  carriages,  which 
otherwise  it  would  be  impossible  to  get. 

There  had  been  a  fair  in  the  neighbourhood  and 
there  were  crowds  of  picturesque  people  about, 
dressed  in  holiday  attire,  and  very  bright  and  ani- 
mated they  made  the  scene. 

After  driving  about  a  mile  along  a  shady  road, 
under  fine  trees,  we  reached  one  of  the  five  gates 
of  the  city,  which  is  placed  at  the  entrance  to  a 
circle  of  hills  and  built  in  amphitheatre  form  on 
the  sunny  slope  of  a  hill,  crowned  with  palaces 
and  with  its  sides  covered  with  rich  vegetation, 
but  rising  above  into  fantastically  jagged  peaks  of 
"  glistening  quartz. 

The  town  is  protected  by  a  rampart  and  moat 
all  round  except  where  the  range  of  rocky  hills — 
a  marked  feature  of  this  state — protects  the  city 
from  attack.     Passing  a  great  brass  gun  guarding 


THE  MAIN  STREET  OF  ALWAR 

"  The  Main  Street  of  Alwar,  running  straight  towards 
the  mountains,  is  closed  at  the  end  by  a  conical  and 
rocky  spur,  crowned  by  the  fort  which  dominates  the 
town.  The  street  itself  is  one  on  bazaar,  thronged 
by  a  busy  bright  crowd." 


SHRINE   AT    THE    CROSSWAYS      337 

the  gateway  and  beneath  the  archway  we  found 
ourselves  in  a  whitewashed  street  of  irregular 
houses  :  at  the  far  end  rose  the  picturesque  fort, 
with  its  encircling  walls  on  the  conical  hill  some 
900  feet  high,  which    formed  a  grey  and  misty 


THE   MAIN   STREET 


background  to  the  vista  of  sunny  street  filled  with 
gay  figures. 

At  a  place  where  four  roads  meet,  a  curious 
gateway  opens  four  ways  over  the  crossing  of  the 
streets,  and  supports  the  tomb  of  Firoz  Shah's 
brother  ;  beneath,  in  one  of  the  corners,  is  a  shrine. 
It  was  interesting  to  watch  the  people  going  up 
the  steps  to  this  little  place,  ringing  a  bell,  going 


338  ALWAR 

through  certain  formalities  and  acts  of  reverence, 
and  then  coming  down  and  going  on  their  way. 

We  went  up  the  narrow  street  lined  with  bright 
shops,  through  more  gateways  to  a  temple  of 
Juggernaut,  and  then,  close  under  the  hill,  we  came 
to  the  city  Palace  of  the  Maharaja,  who,  however, 
does  not  live  here  but  two  or  three  miles  out  of  the 
town  in  a  palace  overlooking  a  pleasant  piece  of 
water. 

Until  the  last  century  Alwar  state  was  divided 
into  a  number  of  petty  chieftainships  owing  alle- 
giance to  Jeypore  and  Bhartpur,  and  the  founder 
of  the  present  house,  having  carved  himself  out 
an  independent  State  whilst  the  Moguls,  Jats,  and 
Mahrattas  were  at  war,  had  the  prescience  to  ally 
himself  with  the  British,  who  rewarded  his  per- 
spicacity with  a  large  addition  of  territory.  His 
successors,  however,  had  not  such  an  eye  for  the 
winning  side,  and  before  they  settled  down  gave 
some  trouble  to  their  allies. 

The  present  Maharaja  is  celebrated  for  his 
cavalry,  devotes  his  superfluous  energy  to  horse- 
breeding,  and  has  a  fine  stud  of  several  thousand 
horses.  Hehasalsoshown himself philanthropically 
inclined,  and  was  one  of  the  first  native  chiefs  to 
support  Lady  Dufferin's  Fund. 

We  passed  within  high  walls,  by  an  imposing 
gateway,  into  the  city  Palace,  built,  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  on  a  terrace  stretching  the 
whole  length  of  the  town  ;  then  passing  through 
many  courts  we  came  to  the  State  Apartments,  the 
Durbar  Hall,  the  Armoury,  Treasury,  and  Library, 


THE    CITY    PALACE  339 

all  reached  by  gently  sloping  corridors  instead  of 
stairs.  At  the  back  of  the  Palace  is  a  most 
picturesque  tank,  with  marble  steps  and  pavilions 
reflected  in  the  water,  and,  raised  high  on  a  terrace 
of  pink  sandstone  on  the  South  side,  is  an 
elaborately  ornamented  building  with  a  wide,  low 
dome  culminating  in  a  pinnacle,  the  marble  ceno- 
taph of  Maharaja  Bakhtawar  Sing.  On  the  East 
side  of  the  tank,  at  the  head  of  a  stately  flight  of 
stairs,  stands,  in  long  array,  the  Palace  and  Zenana, 
"with  cool  arcades  for  the  ladies  fair,"  where 

All  their  womanhood  has  been, 
Hen-cooped  behind  a  marble  screen. 
And  they  count  their  pearls  and  doze. 

It  is  of  marble  and  profusely  decorated ;  but  is  so 
cut  up  with  oriel  windows  and  turrets,  deep  arch- 
ways and  balconies,  and  has  such  a  perplexing 
confusion  of  domes  and  cupolas  above,  that  it  fails 
to  be  a  grand  building,  and  the  eye  is  distracted 
in  searching  for  a  unity  and  repose  which  it  does 
not  find.  At  the  same  time  it  undoubtedly 
possesses  picturesque  features  which  are  enhanced 
by  the  effect  of  the  stern,  rocky  heights  rising 
immediately  behind  it. 

We  looked  across  the  deep  tank  at  our  feet,  over 
the  town  and  wooded  plain  to  the  mountains 
beyond.  Myriads  of  Rock  pigeons  were  flying 
about  making  the  ground  blue  where  they  alighted, 
and  there  are  countless  peacocks — the  sacred  bird 
that  is  never  molested,  being  sacred  to  Saraswati, 
the  goddess  who  presides  over  births  and  marriages. 
These  looked  very  beautiful,  perched  upon  the  old 


340  ALWAR 

red  sandstone  walls  or  strutting  about  over  the 
marble  pavements.  Squirrels  were  to  be  seen 
everywhere  here  as  elsewhere. 

During  the  night  fell  torrents  of  rain,  the  first 
we  had  experienced  since  we  landed  in  India.  It  is 
curious  it  should  have  fallen  the  only  night  when 
we  were  not  sleeping  in  a  house :  our  tent,  how- 
ever, luckily  kept  all  the  rain  out. 

I  went  into  the  town  early,  as  it  had  cleared  up 
and  was  quite  dry  again,  and  my  companion  joined 
me  there.  We  had  previously  made  an  appoint- 
ment at  the  Palace  with  the  Maharaja's  secretary 
who  was  to  show  us  the  sights,  but  after  waiting  an 
hour  with  no  sign  of  the  custodian  we  were  on  the 
point  of  going  away  when,  with  a  truly  Oriental 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  time,  the  keeper  of  the 
Armoury  appeared.  He  turned  out  to  be  a  great 
enthusiast,  and  treated  the  sabres  and  other 
weapons — studded  with  jewels — as  though  they 
were  his  children.  He  seemed  quite  pleased  with 
our  visit,  and  nearly  kissed  our  feet  when  we  said 
good-bye.  The  Treasury  is,  I  believe,  well  worth 
seeing,  but  its  custodian  did  not  appear.  We  saw 
the  Library,  however,  and,  amongst  other  very 
valuable  manuscripts,  a  fine  copy  of  the  "  Gulis- 
tan,"  beautifully  illustrated  with  miniature  paint- 
ings. It  is  the  joint  work  of  three  men  :  a  German 
engrossed  the  MS.,  a  native  of  Delhi  painted  the 
miniatures,  and  a  Punjabi  did  the  scrolls.  I  believe 
it  cost  500,000  rupees. 

After  breakfast  with  the  Angus  Macdonalds  he 
took  me  to  see  the  tomb  of  Faith  Jung  (1547)  close 


VIOLENT   THUNDERSTORM         341 

to  the  railway  station,  a  large  building  with  a  very 
ugly  exterior,  which  is  now  converted  into  corn 
stores  for  the  Maharaja's  horses.  The  interior, 
however,  is  fine,  the  dome  being  raised  on  penden- 
tives  from  a  square  to  the  sixteen-sided  base  upon 
which  it  rests.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  fine  plaster 
work  in  relief  on  the  walls  of  the  building,  patterns 
with  flat  surface  and  rectangular  mouldings  like 
those  of  the  Alhambra  and  Bijapur.  The  Angus 
Macdonalds,  who  were  continuously  most  kind, 
came  to  see  us  off  in  the  train  at  the  close  of  our 
pleasant  twenty-four  hours'  stay  in  Alwar. 

Soon  after  we  started  such  a  thunderstorm, 
accompanied  by  torrents  of  rain,  broke  upon  us 
as  I  do  not  ever  remember  to  have  seen  before. 
The  lightning  was  incessant,  and  when  it  became 
dark  it  illuminated  the  country  in  a  marvellous 
way  showing  us  that  it  was  flooded  with  water. 
We  passed  through  a  pretty  district  where  there 
are  large  trees  with  thick  bright  foliage,  and  rugged 
hills  of  fantastic  shapes  in  the  background. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
AJMERE 

At  Alwar  we  had  heard  that  we  were  expected  at 
Ajmere  by  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Biddulph,  and  conse- 
quently, at  3  A.M.  on  March  12,  we  disembarked 
from  the  train  at  Ajmere  station,  in  a  storm  of  rain 
and  wind.  A  chuprassie  was  waiting  for  us,  and 
before  long  we  were  comfortably  installed  in 
delightful  rooms  in  Shah  Jehan's  palace  on  the 
lake,  where  lived  our  friend  the  Commissioner. 
Following  our  Alwar  experiences  this  seemed  to 
us  most  luxurious,  and  we  were  glad  to  turn  in  for 
a  good  rest,  after  some  *'  hump  "  sandwiches.  The 
hump,  by  the  way,  is  that  of  the  native  ox  (zebu), 
and  quite  one  of  the  best  things  of  its  kind  in 
India. 
When  I  opened  the  window  at  daylight  and 


344  AJMERE 

walked  out  on  the  white  marble  balcony,  an  exqui- 
sitely beautiful  and  peaceful  scene  lay  before  me.  I 
found  myself  overhanging  the  shining  levels  of  a 
lovely  lake,  surrounded  by  most  picturesque  hills, 
and  with  a  glorious  flood  of  light  from  the  rising 
sun  shining  on  the  high  rugged  rosy  granite  peaks 
to  the  south-west.  I  lost  no  time  in  getting  out  my 
sketching  materials  and  setting  to  work.  The 
Commissioner's  house,  at  the  time  of  my  visit, 
stood  upon  the  great  bund  or  embankment 
which  dams  up  the  water  in  the  valley  of  the  river 
Luni,  and  forms  the  lake  called  the  Ana  Sagar  or 
Sea  of  Ana,  after  its  maker,  Ana  Raja,  a  Chauhan 
Rajput  of  the  eleventh  century.  He  was  the  great- 
great-grandfather  of  the  heroic  Prithvi  Raja,  king 
of  Delhi  and  Ajmere,  the  last  champion  of  Hindu 
independence  in  the  north  of  India,  who  was  over- 
come and  cruelly  put  to  death,  in  cold  blood,  at 
Delhi  in  1194  by  the  Mohammedans  under 
Shahab-ud-din. 

On  the  western  side  of  the  lake,  which  is  several 
miles  round,  lies  the  walled  town  of  Ajmere,  with 
its  stately  gateways,  in  a  lovely  valley  or  basin, 
shady  with  fine  trees  and  bright  with  gardens  of 
orange,  rose  and  pomegranate.  Above  the  town 
rises  a  steep  and  majestic  conical  hill,  an  isolated 
spur  of  the  rocky  Aravali  range.  The  celebrated 
fortress  of  Taraghur,  which,  at  a  height  of  three 
thousand  feet  crowns  the  summit  of  this  hill,  is  said 
to  be  the  work  of  the  Chauhan  Rajput,  Aja  Pal,  the 
shepherd  king,  who  founded  Ajmere  a.d.  145  and 
ended  his  life  as  a  yogi,  in  a  mountain  gorge,  a  few 


.••■Mnr-^r[i»p^ftiiM"ffffi'^"ii 


THE  ANA  SAGAR,  AJMERE 

"  Shah  Jehan  built  four  marble  pavilions  on  the 
great  bund  or  embankment  which  dams  up  the  water 
in  the  valley  of  the  river  Luni,  and  forms  the  lake 
called  the  Ana  Sagar.  One  of  these  was  used  as  the 
Commissioner's  house  at  the  time  of  my  visit.  When 
I  opened  the  window  at  daylight  and  walked  out  on 
the  white  marble  balcony,  an  exquisitely  beautiful 
and  peaceful  scene  lay  before  me.  I  found  myself 
overhanging  the  shining  levels  of  a  lovely  lake, 
surrounded  by  most  picturesque  hills,  and  with  a 
glorious  flood  of  light  from  the  rising  sun  shining  on 
the  rugged  rosy  granite  peaks  to  the  south-west." 


AJMERE  345 

miles  from  the  town,  which  bears  his  name.  The 
bare,  sharp,  rocky  peaks  of  the  Aravali  hills,  which 
form  such  a  fascinating  background  to  all  views  of 
Ajmere,  in  its  setting  of  green  gardens,  are  full  of 
gorges  and  ravines,  where  quaint,  spiky  cactus- 


'3&- 


LOOKING  DOWN  ON  THE  ANA  SAGAR 


plants  form  the  only  vegetation.  This  range,  of 
which  we  had  seen  the  north-eastern  end  above  the 
Kutub  at  Delhi,  is  at  its  highest  in  the  Ajmere  dis- 
trict and  terminates  south-west  in  the  isolated 
group  of  temple-covered  peaks,  Mount  Abu,  or 
the  "Saint's  Pinnacle,'"  which  Tod  in  his  fascina- 


346  AJMERE 

ting  "Annals  of  Rajputana"  calls  the  Olympus  of 
the  Rajputs. 

The  green  oasis  in  the  Ajmere  valley  is  the  result 
of  several  of  the  banked-up  pools  of  water  charac- 
teristic of  this  country.  Besides  the  Ana  Sagar 
Lake,  there  are  two  others  near  the  town  :  one,  the 
Visala  Tal,  has  a  picturesque  shrine  on  an  island  in 
the  centre,  and  was  the  work  of  Visaldeo.the  grand- 
father of  Ana  Raja,  who  ruled  here  about  the 
time  of  the  first  early  Mohammedan  invasion, 
when,  about  1025,  Mahmoud  of  Ghazni  passed 
like  a  devastating  flame  through  Ajmere,  on 
his  way  to  destroy  Sommath  and  its  celebrated 
temples.  He  effectively  destroyed  Ajmere  and 
its  temples,  but  the  people  took  refuge  in  the 
Taraghur  Fort,  and  when,  on  his  return,  Mah- 
moud was  decoyed  into  the  sandy  deserts  of 
Marwar,  the  "  land  of  death,"  where  his  people 
perished  in  thousands  from  thirst,  the  Rajputs 
descended  from  the  heights  and  took  their  revenge. 
After  his  army  had  returned  to  the  north  the  Rajput 
clans,  Rahtores  and  Chauhans,  Solaukhyas,  Geh- 
lots,  Sesodias  and  Kachwahas  returned  to  their 
territories  as  before,  and  to  the  celebrated  feuds 
between  Rahtores  and  Chauhans  which  fill  the 
annals  of  the  twelfth  century  with  episodes  as 
romantic  and  fantastic  as  the  tales  of  chivalry  of  the 
same  period  in  mediaeval  Europe,  and,  continuing 
till  Victorian  days,  have  inspired  more  than  one 
English  writer.  After  Shahab-ud-din's  and  Kutub- 
ud-din's  invasion  a  century  later,  though  they 
fought  with  desperate  valour  under  Prithvi  Raja, 


RAJPUT   AMBITIONS  347 

the  Rajputs  lost  Delhi,  Ajmere  and  most  of  the 
open  country,  and  were  driven  back  to  found  new 
fortress-homes  in  the  rougher  and  less  attractive 
districts,  from  which  they  have  never  been  dis- 
turbed, where  the  pure-blooded  Rajput  clans  have 
maintained  a  semi-feudal  independence  and  per- 
petuated their  primitive  customs  to  this  day.  They 
lost  Malwa  and  Gujrat,  and  the  independent 
Mohammedan  kingdoms,  established  there,  main- 
tained themselves  until  the  time  of  Henry  VIIL, 
when  the  famous  and  brilliant  Rana  Sanga  of 
Oodeypore,  chief  of  the  Sesodia  clan,  succeeded  in 
turning  out  the  Mohammedans  and  in  restoring 
the  Rajput  ascendency  there.  Though  in  peace 
no  Rajput  but  those  of  his  own  name  owed  him 
allegiance,  yet  his  uncompromising  hostility  to  the 
Moslems,  and  his  indomitable  spirit,  made  him 
the  "  war  lord  "  amongst  the  clans,  and  he  might 
even  have  succeeded  in  consolidating  an  empire 
of  Central  India  but  that  at  this  moment  the  fresh 
tide  of  invasion  from  the  north-west  swept  down 
over  India  under  Babar,  who  was  inspired  by  the 
same  aims,  and  the  Mohammedan  cavalry  again 
proved  irresistible.  Rana  Sanga  and  all  the 
chilvalry  of  Rajistan  were  mown  down  at  Fatehpur 
Sikri  in  1 527,  and  all  their  hopes  shattered  for  ever. 
The  destruction  of  Rajput  ambitions  was  com- 
pleted by  the  genius  of  Akbar,  who  recovered  Aj- 
mere and  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  in  that  town, 
which,  for  six  centuries,  has  been  the  key  to  politi- 
cal predominance  in  this  country  of  seething,  tur- 
bulent rival  clans  and  factions.  Akbar  undermined 


348  AJMERE 

the  Rajput  policy  of  splendid  isolation  by  attach- 
ing them  to  his  person  and  house  by  marriage,  and 
to  his  empire  by  high  commands  as  governors  and 
generals.  In  their  own  country  he  respected  their 
authority,  but  though  they  maintained  a  certain 
amount  of  independence,  and  by  no  means  occu- 
pied the  same  position  as  the  Afghan  and  Persian 
Emirs  of  his  regular  army,  yet  they  all,  except  the 
indomitable  Sesodia  clan  of  Oodeypore,  became  in 
reality  feudatories  of  the  Moguls.  Akbar  married 
two  Rajput  princesses :  Miriam,  the  daughter  of 
the  Raja  of  Jeypore,  who,  from  the  character  of  the 
frescoes  in  her  palace  at  Fatehpur  Sikri,  has  been 
supposed  to  have  been  converted  to  Christianity ; 
and  Jodhbar,  the  sister  of  Udai  Singh  of  Jodpur. 
The  two  Mogul  Emperors,  Jehangir  and  Shah 
Jehan,  the  unlucky  Prince  Khusru  and  Aurang- 
zeb's  son  Shah  Alam,  all  had  Rajput  mothers,  and 
relied  on  their  connections  here  to  support  them  in 
their  struggles  for  the  throne.  As  long  as  an  Em- 
peror remained  to  claim  their  allegiance  the  chiefs 
fulfilled  their  obligations.  Later  on  they  attempted 
to  regain  their  independence  and  shared  in  the 
general  disorganisation  of  India.  The  Mahrattas, 
under  Holkar  and  Sindhia,  bled  the  country  by 
their  claim  to  one-fourth  of  the  State  revenue,  and 
ravaged  and  destroyed,  here  as  elsewhere,  till,  the 
clans  being  utterly  exhausted  by  thirty  years  inces- 
sant war,  and  the  Rajput  chieftainships  threatened 
with  extinction,  the  English,  under  Lake  and 
Wellesley,  partially  freed  Rajputana  from  the 
Mahrattaoppressionand withdrew,  restoring  to  the 


KISHNA    KOMARI  349 

chiefs  their  independence,  but  leaving  them  to  their 
fate.  The  Rajput  clans,  however,  areentirely  lacking 
in  any  instinct  of  federation,  and  the  whole  country 
was  overrun  for  ten  years  or  more  by  freebooting 
Pindaris,  numbering  some  30,000  in  all,  who 

"  Rode  with  Nawab  Amir  Khan  in  the  old  Maratha  war : 
From  the  Dekhan  to  the  Himalay  five  hundred  of  one  clan. 
They  asked  no  leave  of  prince  or  chief  as  they  swept  thro' 
Hindusthan," 

plundering  freely.  The  old  intertribal  feuds  also- 
revived,  and  the  famous  contest  between  the  rival 
chiefs  of  Jeypore  and  Jodhpur  for  the  hand  of  an 
Oodeypore  princess  brought  their  clans  to  theverge 
of  destruction  :  Mahrattas  and  Pindaris  joined  in 
the  contest,  which  involved  the  whole  country. 
The  romance  of  the  story  is  unfortunately  rather 
tarnished  when  it  appears  that  this  chivalrous  con- 
test ended  in  a  compromise,  according  to  which 
matters  were  simplified  by  poisoning  the  unfor- 
tunate lady,  the  heroine  of  the  tale. 

The  Princess  Kishna  Komari  ("  the  virgin  ")  was 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  being  a  Sesodia,  "a 
Child  of  the  Sun,"  of  the  noblest  blood  in  India. 
She  was  exquisitely  beautiful,  and  had  been  be- 
trothed in  her  eighth  year  to  Raja  Bheem  Sing,  of 
Jodhpur.  He  died  in  1804,  and  two  years  later  her 
father,  the  weak  and  foolish  Maharana  of  Oodeypore 
returned  afavourable  answer  tojuggut  Sing  of  Jey- 
pore, who  had  sent  an  embassy, with  three  thousand 
men,  to  ask  the  hand  of  the  beautiful  and  attractive 
Kishna.  Raja  Maun  Sing,  of  Jodhpur,  then  in- 
tervened,   supported,    for   pecuniary   reasons,    by 


350  AJMERE 

Sindhia,  with  eight  thousand  men,  and  advanced 
his  pretensions  on  the  ground  that  the  Princess 
had  been  affianced  to  the  throne  of  Jodhpur,  and 
therefore  he,  as  its  present  occupant,  claimed  her 
as  his  right.  The  three  kingdoms  then  became 
involved  in  a  bitter  triangular  duel.  Jodhpur  en- 
dured an  eight  months'  siege,  the  deserts  were 
strewn  with  the  bones  of  the  slain,  and  four  years 
incessant  warfare  reduced  the  kingdoms  to  the 
lowest  ebb,  yet  neither  side  would  withdraw  their 
claim.  Amir  Khan  had  sometimes  sided  with  one 
party  and  sometimes  with  the  other.  He  now 
threatened  the  Maharana  of  Oodeypore  with  the 
disgrace  of  seeing  his  palace  stormed,  and  winning 
over  the  Sesodia's  minister  Ajit,  induced  the 
Maharana  to  agree  to  sacrifice  his  daughter. 
Komari  showed  the  spirit  of  her  ancestors  and 
rose  to  the  height  of  the  situation,  like  Iphigenia 
or  Andromeda.  As  her  life  was  made  the  price  of 
peace,  she  agreed,  in  spite  of  her  mother's  lamenta- 
tions, to  die,  and  save  her  father's  family  and 
house  from  becoming  a  prey  to  the  Mahratta  and 
Pindari  hordes.  She  could  fall  by  no  common 
hand,  so  a  blood  relation  was  persuaded  to  under- 
take the  deed :  confronted  with  the  victim,  his 
courage  failed.  "  She  was  then  excused  the  steel, 
and  a  cup  was  prepared.  Three  times  the  valiant 
Princess,  with  a  prayer  for  her  father,  accepted  the 
poison,  and  three  times  it  failed  to  take  effect ; 
then  they  gave  her  opium,  and  she  slept  away." 
Colonel  Tod,  who  knew  the  actors  in  this 
tragedy,  says  that  her  mother  lost  her  reason  and 


PAX    BRITANNICA  351 

died  raving  a  few  days  later,  and  that  when  the 
deed  was  known,  a  brave  chieftain  of  the  same 
clan  rushed  into  the  Maharana's  presence  and 
cursing  him,  with  his  minister,  as  a  disgrace  to 
the  race,  laid  on  the  throne  of  Oodeypore  the  ban 
of  never  having  a  direct  male  heir.  Of  the  Maha- 
rana's ninety-five  children  only  one  survived  him, 
his  queens  refused  to  perform  sati  on  his  pyre,  and 
to  none  of  his  six  immediate  successors  was  an 
heir  born.  Ajit  s  wife  and  two  sons  died  within 
a  month,  and  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  des- 
picable existence  wandering  as  a  Yogi  from  shrine 
to  shrine  in  the  vain  endeavour  to  purify  himself 
from  the  innocent  blood  of  Kishna. 

Before  long,  the  minor  chiefs  called  in  the 
British,  as  the  paramount  power,  to  restore  order. 
Lord  Hastings  intervened,  and  in  1819  broke  up 
the  Pindari  camps,  and  excluding  Holkar  and 
Sindhia  from  Rajputana,  ended  the  general 
scramble  for  territory  by  recognising  and  de- 
fining the  lawful  possessions  of  each  State  ;  treaties 
were  executed  with  the  English  Government, 
which,  as  suzerain,  was  established  in  Ajmere. 
The  tribute  payable  to  the  Mahrattas  was  made 
payable  to  us,  and  we  receive  it  to  this  day.  The 
old  days  of  banditti  and  plundering  predatory 
bands  were  at  an  end,  and  the  Commissioner 
established  in  Shah  Jehan's  palace  on  the  Ana 
Sagar  Lake  is  a  symbol  of  the  Pax  Britamiica, 
which  ever  since  has  reigned  in  this  land  of  per- 
petual strife.  How  soon,  one  wonders,  would  the 
old  scenes  of  disorder  return,  and  Rajputana,  now 


352  AJMERE 

•one  of  the  most  delightful  parts  of  the  peninsula, 
relapse  into  the  confusion  from  which  we  rescued 
it,  were  the  power  which  keeps  India  from  des- 
troying herself  withdrawn  ? 

The   palace  of  Shah  Jehan,  in  which  we  were 
staying,    consisted  originally,    Colonel    Biddulph 


THE   COMMISSIONER  S   HOUSE 


told  me,  of  four  marble  Baradaris  or  summer- 
houses  on  the  Bund,  the  precincts  of  which  were 
devoted  to  the  use  of  the  ladies  of  his  court,  who 
were  thus  enabled  to  enjoy  a  considerable  amount 
of  liberty  without  observation  :  Shah  Jehan  him- 
self inhabited  Akbar's  palace  in  the  town.  His 
buildings  on  the  Bund  have  now  been  restored 
according  to  the  original  design,  but  at  the  time 
of  my  visit  three  of  these   summer-houses  were 


CROCODILES   ON    THE    MARCH      353 

used  as  the  public  library,  and  as  official  resi- 
dences for  the  Commissioner,  the  Civil  Surgeon. 
The  walls  of  my  room  were  of  white  marble, 
and  the  columns  and  arches  on  one  side,  and 
beautiful  little  niches  in  rows  on  the  other,  sug- 
gested its  past  beauties.  The  balcony  over  the 
lake  was  a  continual  delight.  Though  I  could  see 
nothing  of  them,  there  was  a  colony  of  otters  under 
the  house  amongst  the  rocks.  I  believe  there  were 
also  a  number  of  crocodiles  in  the  lake,  but  they 
were  also  '*  lying  low."  During  a  terrible  drought, 
from  which  the  country  suffered  not  long  ago,  the 
Ana  Sagar  completely  dried  up,  and  Colonel  Bid- 
dulph  told  me  that  when  the  last  of  the  water  had 
disappeared,  thecrocodiles  which  inhabited  the  lake 
organised  themselves  into  a  band  and  decamped, 
marching  off  in  a  body  to  the  sacred  lake  of  Push- 
kar,  across  the  hills.  What  instinct  or  intelligence 
led  them  to  do  this,  and  how  they  knew  of  the 
existence  of  water  elsewhere,  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand. 

The  weather  was  very  cold  on  this  lofty  plateau, 
and  it  soon  began  to  rain  again,  and  continued  to 
do  so  off  and  on  all  day.  Of  course  we  never  went 
anywhere  in  India  without  encountering  "unprece- 
dented weather."  Here,  in  a  spot  where,  as  a  rule, 
at  this  time  of  year,  people  sit  and  pant,  with 
the  earth  like  hot  copper  and  the  sky  like  burn- 
ished steel,  we  found  ourselves  with  closed  doors 
and  windows,  in  greatcoats,  writing  by  candle- 
light at  midday,  with  the  rain  pouring  down  out- 
side. However,  between  the  showers  we  took  a 


354  AJMERE 

walk  by  the  side  of  the  lake  and  through  the 
Daulat  Bagh,  Jehangir's  "garden  of  splendour" 
at  the  outlet  of  the  waters  :  here  he  disported 
himself  under  the  avenues  of  trees,  in  the  state- 
coach  sent  him  by  James  I.,  when  Sir  Thomas  Roe 
was  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  the  Great  Mogul 
from  1616-18,  and  was  entertained  by  the  Em- 
peror at  a  banquet  on  the  Bund,  where  also  he 
witnessed  the  submission  of  Rana  Umra  Sing, 
the  last  Rajput  chief  to  bow  his  proud  head  to 
the  new  order. 

Outside  the  city  to  the  east  still  stands  the  noble 
gateway  of  the  Palace  of  Akbar,  characterised  by 
Sir  Thomas  Roe  as  a  "  house  of  pleasure  of  the 
king's,  a  place  of  much  melancholy,  delight,  and 
security/'  About  the  same  date  as  Sir  Thomas  Roe, 
another  Englishman,  Thomas  Coryat,  the  first 
globe-trotter,  visited  Ajmere  in  16 16,  coming  on 
foot  from  Jerusalem,  and  quaintly  pluming  him- 
self on  having  spent  only  ^2.  \os.  on  the  way. 

The  bad  weather  did  not  last  long,  and  the 
lovely,  though  chilly,  days  were  all  too  short  for 
all  we  found  to  do  and  see.  I  usually'  began  to 
sketch,  in  a  fur  coat,  before  breakfast,  and  one  day 
we  were  up  early  and  drove  to  see  the  celebrated 
Arhai  din  ka  Johmpra  Mosque,  or  "  Hut  of  two 
half-days,"  in  a  ravine  at  the  back  of  the  old  native 
town,  a  curious  and  interesting  building  much 
resembling  that  at  the  Kutub  :  it  owes  its  origin 
to  the  same  causes,  and  dates  from  about  the  same 
time.  Originally  there  was  a  fine  Jain  temple 
here.    Colonel  Cunningham  thinks   it   is  of  the 


A    NOBLE    MOSQUE  355 

tenth  century,  though  it  has  been  assigned  a  much 
earlier  date.  This  was  pulled  about  and  con- 
verted by  Altamsh  (1236)  into  a  mosque,  with  a 
fine  yellow  sandstone  screen  of  high  Hindu  arches 
in  front  of  the  west  side.  Probably  the  pillars  now 
standing  are  arranged  in  the  same  way  as  when 
they  formed  part  of  the  courtyard  of  the  Jain 
temple,  but  the  western  side,  with  its  nine  domes, 
is  all  that  now  remains  intact.  The  pillars  are  more 
beautiful  than  those  in  the  mosque  at  Delhi,  being 
taller  and  of  greater  purity  of  design.  They  show 
great  originality  and  a  most  fertile  creative 
imagination.  But  it  is  the  grandeur  of  conception 
of  Altamsh's  great  screen  of  splendid  arches,  with 
their  wonderful  decoration  of  Cufic  and  Togra  in- 
scriptions, which,  executed  with  exquisite  refine- 
ment and  beauty  of  detail  by  the  patient  Hindu 
artists,  makes  this  mosque  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting monuments  of  India,  and,  perhaps  as  en- 
thusiasts like  Colonel  Cunningham  think,  puts  it 
on  a  line  with  the  noblest  buildings  in  the  world. 
The  sculpture  and  decoration  is  most  intricate  and 
elaborate.  In  places  there  are  graceful  scrolls  of 
stiff  conventional  design  deeply  incised,  with  bands 
of  inscription  running  across  them  on  a  different 
level,  raised  slightly  above,  or,  rather,  not  cut  so 
deeply  into  the  stone  as  the  scrolls. 

We  went  on  to  the  Dargah  close  by,  a  strange 
and  attractive  group  of  buildings  clustering  round 
the  burial-place  of  the  famous  saint,  Khwajah 
Sahib  Mohin-ud-din,  who  died  here  in  the  12th 
century. 


356  AJMERE 

He  was  the  first  of  the  famous  family  of  Chisti 
saints  and  politicians,  and  came  from  Ghor,  in  the 
mountains  to  the  East  of  Herat,  and  was  at 
Ajmere  in  1143  at  the  time  when  Shahab-ud-din 
put  Prithvi  Raja  to  death.  Shrines  of  six  or 
seven  members  of  the  same  family  who  lived 
during  the  following  400  years  exist  in  different 
parts  of  India,  and  are  much  venerated.  The 
tomb  of  any  one  specially  noted  for  asceticism,  or 
with  a  reputation  for  occult  or  supernatural  powers, 
usually  does  become  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  where 
a  large  concourse  of  people  gathers  to  make  offer- 
ings of  food  to  the  poor,  and  to  implore  the  inter- 
cession of  the  departed,  whose  family  usually  find 
the  guardianship  of  the  shrine  or  Dargah,  around 
which  an  annual  religious  assembly  and  fair  grows 
up,  a  most  lucrative  hereditary  profession.  Now 
and  then  amongst  the  wilder  people  of  the  north, 
a  holy  man  has  been  strangled  by  the  inhabitants 
of  a  village  for  the  sake  of  the  benefits,  moral  and 
material,  which  will  accrue  to  those  who  possess 
his  sacred  bones. 

Akbar  had  a  great  veneration  for  this  Chisti 
saint,  which  led  him  to  build  a  mosque  in  the 
precincts  of  the  tomb,  an  example  which  Shah 
Jehan  followed.  Akbar  was  continually  on  the 
road  between  Fatehpur  Sikri  and  here,  and  in 
January  1569,  made  the  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine, 
on  foot  from  Agra,  with  all  his  family,  hoping  to 
obtain,  by  means  of  the  saint's  powerful  protection, 
a  much-desired  son.  The  Emperor's  pilgrimage 
lasted    nearly   a   month :    he    and    his   company 


A   SACRED    SHRINE  357 

travelled  in  procession  at  the  rate  of  about  fourteen 
miles  a  day,  along  roads  spread  with  carpets  and 
with  Kanats,  or  walls  of  cloth,  raised  on  either  side. 
The  resting-places  were  marked  by  the  small 
menars  or  towers  of  brick,  one  of  which  I  sketched 
near  Agra  (p.  187).  Until  then  all  Akbar's  sons 
had  died  in  infancy,  and  the  story  goes  that  the 
Chisti  pir,  or  holy  man,  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream 
at  the  Ajmere  Dargah,  and  evidently  wishing  to 
keep  so  good  a  client  in  the  family,  sent  him  back 
to  Agra  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  another  saint  of  the 
same  lineage — Selim  Chisti — who  lived  to  the  age 
of  ninety-two,  on  the  hill  of  Fatehpur  Sikri,  and 
there  the  following  August,  in  a  little  stone  build- 
ing close  to  the  hermit's  cave,  a  son  was  born  to 
Akbar,  who  lived  and  subsequently  became  the 
Emperor  Jehangir. 

It  is  curious  to  find  the  shrine  of  the  saint  at 
Ajmere  still  reverenced  by  Mohammedans  and 
Hindus  alike,  but  Moslems  and  Hindus  join 
promiscuously  in  their  devotions  and  charities  at 
many  shrines,  apparently  irrespective  of  the 
specific  creed  of  the  holy  man  commemorated. 
Amongst  other  instances  is  that  of  the  tomb,  near 
Meerut,  of  a  Hindu  Saint,  Manohar  Nath,  who  is 
said  to  have  taken  the  Samadhi,"^  that  is  to  say, 
buried  himself  alive  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  and 

*  Instances  of  this  sacrifice  as  being  made  by  men  with  whom 
they  were  personally  acquainted,  are  mentioned  by  Sir  William 
Sleeman  and  John  Lawrence,  both  of  whom  did  their  utmost,  in 
vain,  to  dissuade  the  devotees.  Very  holy  men  amongst  the 
Hindus  are  not  burned  but  buried,  and  they  are  believed  to  lie  in 
a  state  of  trance  in  the  tomb,  which  is  known  as  a  Samadh, 


358  AJMERE 

this  shrine  is  venerated  by  as  many  Mohammedan 
as  Hindu  pilgrims,  and  there  seems  but  little 
difference  in  the  manner  of  expressing  their  devo- 
tion. Indeed,  in  many  parts  of  India,  Moham- 
medans are  said  to  be  only  distinguished  from 
Hindus  by  being  worshippers  of  saints  instead  of 
images.     They 

"  Bow  to  graven  sepulchres,  and  adore  a  martyr's  stone, 
Who  pray  to  a  dead  liermit  that  should  pray  to  God  alone  ;  " 

and  do  not  by  any  means 

**  Shun  the  Hindu  festivals,  the  tinkling  of  the  bell, 
The  dancing,  the  idolatries," 

for  the  two  religious  bodies  often  share  the  same 
festivals  and  venerate  Moolah  or  Brahman  priest, 
fakir  or  yogi  indiscriminately.  Akbar's  spirit  of 
tolerance  which  benefited  India  so  greatly  was 
certainly  fatal  to  the  spread  of  Islam,  and  there- 
fore ruinous  to  its  character,  for  Mohammedanism 
withers  and  dies  when  it  ceases  to  expand. 

The  chief  entrance  to  the  Dargah,  from  the 
crowded  street,  is  beneath  a  whitewashed  archway 
of  great  height,  on  either  side  of  which,  surrounded 
by  a  medley  of  arches,  miniature  cupolas,  pillars 
and  trees,  are  two  huge  iron  cauldrons  some  ten  or 
fifteen  feet  across.  On  certain  festal  occasions,  and 
when  rich  pilgrims  give  an  alms  of  ;^200  tO;,f300 
for  the  purpose,  these  are  filled  with  rice,  raisins, 
sugar,  spices  and  ghee,  which,  when  cooked  by 
enormous  fires  lighted  beneath  the  cauldrons,  is 
in  part  doled  out  to  the  poor  pilgrims.  The 
members  of  certain  privileged  families,  clothed  in 


THE  CAULDRON 

AT  THE  ENTRANCE  TO  THE 

DARGAH,  AJMERE 

"  The  chief  entrance  to  the  Dargah,  from  the  crowded 
street,  is  beneath  a  white- washed  archway  of  great 
height,  on  either  side  of  which,  surrounded  by  a 
medley  of  arches,  miniature  cupolas,  pillars  and  trees, 
are  two  huge  iron  cauldrons  some  ten  or  fifteen  feet 
across.  On  certain  festal  occasions,  and  when  rich 
pilgrims  give  an  alms  of  ;^2oo  to  ;f  300  for  the  purpose, 
these  are  filled  with  rice,  raisins,  sugar,  spices  and 
ghee,  whicli,  when  cooked  by  enormous  fires  lighted 
beneath  the  cauldrons,  is  doled  out  to  the  poor 
pilgrims.  When  they  are  satisfied,  the  members  of 
certain  privileged  families,  swathed  in  rags  and 
wadding,  are  then  allowed  to  jump  into  the  still  hot 
cauldron  and  scramble  for  the  remains." 


"'^^^HHM 

fP^VT" 

p  ^  ^^^^SI^^^^^^^^^^^^hI 

/ 

■       ll^            * 

"IP^ 

lJ/ 

"t 

1 

J  ■ 

'  ''^^m 

P"  Jlm 

f^ii^^i 

'^",  ■ 

THE    DARGAH  359 

rags  and  enveloped  in  wadding,  are  then  allowed 
to  jump  into  the  still  hot  cauldron  and  scramble 
for  the  remains.  It  must  be  a  disgusting  sight, 
and  on  account  of  the  heat  of  the  cauldrons  a 
somewhat  dangerous  feat. 

The  glistening  white  marble  tomb  of  the  saint  is 
very  picturesque :  surrounded  by  fine  marble  lattice 
screens,  it  is  all  dark  and  mysterious  within,  and 
rich-coloured  draperies  and  awnings  shroud  the 
holy  place,  and  shelter  the  doorways.  The  grey 
misty  mountain  peaks  made  a  beautiful  and  quiet 
background  to  this  vivid  scene,  which  was  partially 
veiled  by  the  green  branches  of  one  of  the  gnarled 
and  twisted  trees  shading  the  enclosure.  The  tree 
had  dropped  out  of  the  perpendicular,  and  was  sup- 
ported by  a  finely  carved  yellow  sandstone  pillar. 
The  brightly  clad  crowds  of  pilgrims  about  the 
Dargah  have  the  reputation  of  being  very  fanatical 
and  at  times  troublesome  :  we  had  had  to  envelop 
our  feet  in  list  boots  before  being  allowed  to  enter 
the  courtyard,  and  no  infidel  is  permitted  to 
approach  the  tomb.  When  I  wished  to  sketch,  I 
was,  as  at  Amritzar,  prevented  from  using  my 
camp-stool,  or  even  putting  up  a  white  umbrella. 

Deep  in  the  rocky  mountain-side  at  the  back  of 
the  Dargah  is  a  long,  narrow,  natural  cleft,  the 
sides  of  which  are  faced  with  irregular  flights  of 
'Steep  steps  descending  to  a  deep  tank  below,  and 
ascending  to  tortuous  and  irregular  terraces  and 
platforms  which  follow  the  trend  of  the  rock. 
Above  them  rise  the  enclosing  walls  of  the  Dargah 
and  neighbouring  buildings,  and  I  found  a  shady 


36o 


AJMERE 


and  comparatively  quiet  spot,  partly  sheltered  by 
these  walls,  from  which  to  sketch  this  curious  and 


-^'^*V^ 


A   PICTURESQUE   CORNER 


unique  scene.  It  proved  less  quiet  than  I  had  ex- 
pected, not  only  because  at  no  little  distance  from 
me  a  constant  stream  of  women  in  dark  red  and 


THE  TOMB  OF 

KHWAJAH  MUIN-UD-DIN  CHISTI, 

IN  THE  DARGAH,  AJMERE 

"The  glistening  white  marble  tomb  of  the  saint  is 
very  picturesque ;  surrounded  by  fine  lattice  screens 
It  is  all  dark  and  mysterious  within,  and  rich 
coloured  draperies  and  awnings  shroud  the  holy  place^ 
and  shelter  the  doorways.  The  grey  misty  mountain 
peaks  made  a  beautiful  and  quiet  background  to  this 
vivid  scene,  which  was  partially  veiled  by  the  green 
branches  of  one  of  the  gnarled  and  twisted  trees 
shading  the  enclosure.  The  tree  had  dropped  out  of 
the  perpendicular,  and  was  supported  by  a  finely 
carved  yellow  sandstone  pillar." 


SKETCHING  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES    361 

blue  saris  ascended  and  descended,  with  their 
waterpots  on  their  heads,  but  because,  when  my 
work  was  only  partly  done,  I  discovered  that  I  had 
become  an  object  of  curiosity  and  perhaps  of 
fanatical  jealousy  to  a  party  of  young  ruffians  who 
were  watching  me  from  a  coign  of  vantage  upon 
the  walls  above.  At  first  I  took  no  notice  of  the 
noise  they  made,  but  when  brickbats  began  to  fly 
about  my  head  I  thought  it  time  to  move  to  a  spot 
where  missiles  could  not  reach  me,  and  there  I 
finished  my  sketch  in  peace.  Next  time  I  sketched 
at  the  Dargah  I  took  a  chuprassie,  in  a  scarlet  coat, 
whose  presence  enabled  me  to  work,  free  from  the 
pestering  attentions  of  the  boys  who,  in  all 
countries,  delight  to  vex  the  soul  of  the  harmless 
artist.  Everywhere  else  in  Ajmere  I  dispensed  with 
his  services,  and  Mrs.  Biddulph's  pony,  "  Dumps," 
a  jolly  little  cream-coloured  country-bred  beast, 
took  me  to  my  "spot"  and  back,  and  I  met  with 
no  impediment  except  that  the  poor  pony  was 
vastly  terrified  by  an  encounter  with  two  parties 
of  men  leading  bears. 

The  days  were  all  twenty-four  hours  too  short 
in  this  fascinating  spot,  which  has  all  the  charm 
of  ancient  India  without  the  evils  which  must 
have  so  greatly  marred  the  romantic  days  of 
purely  native  rule. 


THE  TANK  AT  THE  BACK  OF 
THE  DARGAH,  AJMERE 

"  Deep  in  the  rocky  mountain-side  at  the  back  of  the 
Dargah  is  a  long,  narrow,  naturzil  cleft,  the  sides  of 
which  are  faced  with  irregular  flights  of  steep  steps 
descending  to  a  deep  tank  below,  and  ascending  to 
tortuous  and  irregular  terraces  and  platforms  which 
follow  the  trend  of  the  rock.  Above  them  rise  the 
enclosing  walls  of  the  Dargah  and  neighbouring  build- 
ings. A  constant  stream  of  women  in  dark  red  and 
blue  saris  ascended  and  descended,  with  their  water- 
pots  on  their  heads. " 


CHAPTER   XIX 
JODHPUR 

It  had  been  our  intention  to  retrace  our  steps  from 
Ajmere  to  Jeypore,  but  Colonel  Biddulph  kindly 
suggested  that  we  should,  instead,  go  with  him 
to  Jodhpur,  a  wonderful  fortress  and  old  town  in 
the  desert  of  Marwar.  This  enabled  us  to  see  an 
older,  less  well  known,  and  less  sophisticated 
native  State  under  very  delightful  auspices.  As  our 
train  did  not  leave  till  three  in  the  morning  Colonel 
Biddulph  arranged  to  have  a  carriage,  with  two 
compartments,  put  on  a  siding  for  us  :  in  it  we  took 
up  our  quarters  before  1 1  p.m.,  were  hooked  on  at 
3  A.M.,  and  woke  at  seven  next  morning  to  find 
ourselves  at  Marwar,  the  junction  for  Jodhpur.  It 
was  sixty  miles  on  to  Jodhpur,  the  train  took  six 
hours,  and  in  consequence  of  this  remarkable  speed 
was  familiarly  known  as  the  "  Flying  Hindu." 

We  were  here  to  the  west  of  the  Aravali 
Mountains  and  on  the  edge  of  a  vast  desert,  ridged 
with  long,  low,  isolated  sand-hills.  Though  the  flat 
arid  plain  appeared  to  me  to  be  absolutely  bare,  I 
believe  wheat,  barley,  and  millet  crops  are  taken 
off  it,  in  places  where  the  overflow  of  the  River 
Luni,  which  rises  in  the  Ajmere  Lake,  fertilises  the 


364  JODHPUR 

soil  by  overflowing  its  banks,  or  where  wells,  sunk 
in  its  bed,  provide  irrigation.  There  was,  however, 
literally  hardly  a  tree  or  house  all  the  sixty  miles  to 
Jodhpur,  and  until  the  Maharaja  connected  his  city 
by  a  narrows-gauge  railway  with  the  main  line 
there  was  no  road ;  the  track  left  in  the  sand  by  the 
last  camel-caravan  formed  the  only  road  to  the 
capital,  isolated  like  a  ship  at  sea  in  the  midst  of  a 
desert.  A  few  prickly  shrubs,  and  tufts  of  withered 
grass  nourished  scattered  flocks  of  skinny  goats, 
and  the  monotony  of  the  prospect  was  only  relieved 
by  occasional  views  of  bold  and  picturesque  conical 
rocks  and  hills,  seven  hundred  or  eight  hundred 
feet  high,  which  appeared  on  the  horizon  and, 
as  we  proceeded,  passed  away  out  of  sight.  Once  or 
twice  the  train,  running  over  its  unfenced  line, 
scared  away  a  wild  pig  or  a  wolf  from  the  track ; 
after  passing  an  oasis  with  a  ruined  temple  over- 
hung by  trees  and  few  huts,  we  encountered  a 
country  Thakur  or  noble,  riding  a  camel,  with  his 
servant  seated  behind  him  holding  his  hookah  ; 
or  a  string  of  laden  camels  following  in  single  file 
one  of  the  Marwari  traders,  who  are  found  all  over 
India,  and  may  be  known  by  their  peculiar  turban. 
Jodhpur  or  Marwar,  the  largest  of  the  Rajputana 
States,  is  about  the  size  of  Ireland,  and  has  been 
ruled  for  the  last  five  hundred  years  by  a  Maha- 
raja of  the  noble  clan  of  Rahtore,  probably  one 
of  the  purest  blooded  families  in  the  world,  for 
though  they  cannot  boast  quite  so  long  a  pedigree 
as  the  Sesodias  of  Oodeypore,  yet  they  trace  their 
genealogy  clear  back,  in  lineal  descent  from  male 


JODHA  365 

to  male,  about  1360  years.  They  were  Kings  of 
Canouj,  one  of  the  four  great  monarchies  of  the 
ancient  India,  certainly  as  early  as  the  fifth  century, 
and  most  probably  even  before  Christ. 

When  the  Mohammedans  first  invaded  India 
they  found  the  Rajput  princes  of  the  Chohan  line 
ruling  over  the  Delhi  kingdom,  and  the  great 
kingdom  of  Canouj,  extending  from  Nepal  to 
Ajmere,  in  the  hands  of  the  Rahtores,  whom,  in 
his  second  invasion,  Shahab-ud-din  defeated  in  a 
great  battle  on  the  banks  of  the  Jumna,  1 194,  and 
utterly  destroyed  their  capital,  its  temples  and 
palaces.  The  king  and  the  moredauntless  of  the  clan 
then  retreated  to  Marwar,  and  established  them- 
selves at  Mandor,  then  the  capital  of  this  "  region 
of  death."  In  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, Rao  Rimmull,  the  Raja,  having  treacherously 
attempted  to  usurp  the  throne  of  the  infant  Seso- 
dia  Rana  of  Chitore,  his  grandson,  was  slain  by  the 
child's  nearest  blood  relation  and  Mandor  taken. 
One  of  his  twenty-four  sons,  Jodha,  finally  re- 
established his  father's  kingdom,  and,  at  no  great 
distance,  built  the  fortress  city  of  Jodhpur,  which 
became  the  capital,  and  from  his  twenty-three 
other  sons  the  peers  of  the  Rahtore  Rajput  race 
trace  their  descent. 

About  six  or  eight  miles  before  reaching  Jodh- 
pur the  great  rock  of  the  Fort  came  in  sight.  It 
was  built  by  Jodha  on  a  yellow-red  sandstone  rock, 
an  isolated  spur  of  a  small  range  of  hills,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  behest  of  a  yogi,  who  lived  in  a  rocky 
ravine  in  the  neighbourhood.    It  is  a  stupendous 


366  JODHPUR 

affair,  and  rising  four  hundred  feet  abruptly  above 
the  plain  reminded  me  of  Stirling  Castle  on  a  large 
scale. 

A  mile  short  of  the  station  we  passed  the  bun- 
galow of  Major  Loch,  with  whom  we  were  to  stay. 
His  chuprassie  ran  out  from  the  house  at  the 
approach  of  the  train  and  jogged  along  by  its  side, 
then  he  put  on  a  little  pace,  and  arriving  some  time 
before  the  Flying  Hindu,  was  ready  to  receive  us 
when  we  drew  up.  On  the  platform — crowded  as 
usual  with  natives — we  were  greeted  by  Major 
Loch,  and  before  long  we  were  comfortably  estab- 
lished under  his  hospitable  roof  within  sight  of  the 
great  rock.  At  its  feet  lies  the  old  walled  city,  un- 
touched by  the  finger  of  the  moderniser  or  im- 
prover, but  from  the  spot  from  which  I  made  my 
first  sketch  this  is  hidden  by  a  dark  belt  of  trees 
stretching  for  some  distance  along  the  base  of  the 
rock,  and  rendered  especially  noticeable  by  the 
contrast  of  its  foliage  with  the  barren  rock  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  desert  on  the  other.  It  was  so 
hot  that  not  till  late  in  the  afternoon  did  we  start 
with  our  host  for  the  Fort,  past  the  modern 
kutcheri  or  public  offices,  and  a  park  laid  out  in 
squares,  where  the  camp  for  the  Maharaja's 
specially  distinguished  visitors  is  pitched.  We 
went  round  several  very  curious  groups  of  rocks 
which  rise  abruptly  out  of  the  plain — insignificant 
compared  to  the  rock  of  the  Fort,  but  in  themselves 
nevertheless  rather  imposing.  One,  like  a  ship  in 
shape,  has  been  surmounted  by  a  building — a  freak 
of  the  Maharaja's — exactly  following  its  contour. 


JODHPUR— GENERAL  VIEW  OF 
THE  FORT 

"  The  great  rock  of  the  Fort  rises  400  feet  abruptly  out 
of  the  plain,  like  Stirling  Castle  on  a  large  scale.  At 
its  feet  lies  the  old  walled  town  but  from  the  spot 
from  which  this  sketch  is.  taken  it  is  hidden  by  a  dark 
belt  of  trees— especially  noticeable  from  the  contrast 
of  its  foliage  with  the  barren  rock  on  one  side  and  the 
desert  on  the  other." 


Plate  33 


THE    RAHTORE    PALACE  367 

At  last,  by  the  newly  engineered  road,  which 
takes  the  place  of  the  very  steep  step-like  old  ap- 
proach, we  wound  our  way  up  to  the  romantic 
Citadel.  The  steeply  ascending  road  passes  be- 
tween strong  walls  and  under  seven  high  massive 
gateways.  Above  rises,  stage  upon  stage,  the 
palace,  which  generations  of  Rahtore  princes,  like 
genii  in  a  fairy  tale,  have  reared  upon  bastions 
on  the  edge  of  a  perpendicular  cliff,  at  least  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  high,  and  whence  they 
have  for  centuries  gazed  across  the  desert  to  the 
confines  of  their  kingdom.  Two  great  zigzags 
brought  us  to  the  top  of  the  rock,  where  solid 
sandstone  walls  and  towers,  rising  tier  above  tier, 
many  storeys  high,  are  in  strong  contrast  with 
the  delicately  carved  lattice-work  windows  which 
break  the  rugged  surface  and  blend  it  to  one  har- 
monious whole.  The  most  ancient  portions  are  the 
most  beautiful.  Some  are  of  the  hard  grey  marble 
of  the  country  ;  others,  of  brownish-pink  or  warm 
yellow  sandstone,  have  the  front  completely  covered 
with  an  elaborate  veined  netw^ork  of  raised  tracery 
*'  finished  with  the  finger-nail  "  and  spreading  like 
a  cobweb,  as  one  may  see  some  great  vine  climb, 
over  wall  and  window  alike.  In  other  places,  hooded 
canopies  of  stone,  carved  and  drooping  on  either 
side,  like  an  overhanging  eyebrow,  protect  the  win- 
dow-casements and  balconies  from  the  glaring  sun. 
In  still  another  place,  the  solid  bastion  rises  sixty 
feet,  like  Giotto's  tower,  without  a  break,  and  then 
bursts  into  thickly  clustered  balconies  and  canopies. 
In  a  scene  such  as  this,  at  a  turn  of  the  road,  I 


368  JODHPUR 

found  a  suitable  spot  for  a  sketch.  Before  me  was 
a  lofty  whitewashed  gateway,  with  the  palace  tower- 
ing above,  and  past  me  went  an  ever-moving  crowd, 
of  strangely  dressed  natives  from  the  Bikanaer 
desert,  laden  camels  with  their  drivers,  and  groups 
of  women  carrying  waterpots  and  other  weights 
upon  their  heads,  and  an  occasional  elephant 
bearing  a  richly  robed  visitor  for  the  palace. 

On  the  wall  within  the  last  entrance  gate  to  the 
Fort  is  a  row  of  hands,  carved  on  the  stone  and 
painted  red.  These  are  the  marks  of  the  hands  of 
thirty-five  widows  of  successive  deceased  ancestors 
of  the  Maharaja,  who  have  in  their  turn  become 
sati  on  the  death  of  their  husbands  ;  as  they  passed 
out  of  the  Fort  on  their  way  to  the  funeral  pyre 
at  Mandor,  the  old  capital,  they  had  the  impress  of 
their  hands  traced  upon  the  wall,  in  token  of  their 
vow  to  die  with  their  lord  and  master.  The  impress 
of  a  crimsoned  hand  is  often  to  be  seen  on  door  or 
wall  in  India  :  and  it  is  usually  the  sign  that  some 
one  had  "  set  to  their  seal "  and  ratified  a  vow 
of  consecration.  In  the  old  deeds  of  Indian 
mediaeval  times  may  be  seen  the  impressed  outline 
of  the  hand  of  the  signatory  emperor  or  chief, 
dipped  in  ink,  and  laid  upon  the  chart  or  letter, 
just  as  the  mark  of  the  Sultan's  thumb  still  remains 
the  Turkish  equivalent  to  our  Broad  Arrow. 

The  last  little  red  hand  traced  on  the  gateway 
of  Jodhpur  Fort  is  that  of  the  widow  of  the 
grandfather  of  the  present  Maharaja  Jeswant 
Sing.  His  son,  the  father  of  this  man,  was  the 
"  Rajput  chief  of  the  old  school,"  whose  deathbed 


THE  ASCENT  TO  THE  PALACE, 
JODHPUR 

"The  road  ascends  by  zigzags  beneath  seven  gates. 
Above  rises  the  palace,  which  generations  of  Rahtore 
princes  have  reared  upon  bastions  on  the  edge  of  a 
perpendicular  cliff.  Before  me  was  a  lofty  white- 
washed gateway,  through  which  was  passing  an  ever 
moving  crowd  of  strangely  dressed  natives  from  the 
Bikaneer  desert,  laden  camels  with  their  drivers, 
groups  of  women  with  water-pots  on  their  heads,  and 
an  occasional  elephant  bearing  a  richly  dressed  visitor 
to  the  palace. " 


Plate  36 


A    RAJPUT    CHIEF  369 

meditation,  in  his  garden  palace  at  the  foot  of 
Jodhpur  cliff,  is  the  theme  of  the  well-known  lines 
in  *'  Verses  written  in  India  "  : — 

And  why  say  ye  that  I  must  leave 
This  pleasure-garden,  where  the  sun 
Is  baffled  by  the  boughs  that  weave 
Their  shade  o'er  ray  pavilion  ? 

Why  should  I  move  ?     I  love  the  place  ; 
The  dawn  is  fresh,  the  nights  are  still ; 
Ah,  yes  !     I  see  it  in  your  face, 
My  latest  dawn  and  night  are  nigh. 
And  of  my  clan  a  chief  must  die 
Within  the  ancestral  rampart's  fold, 
Paced  by  the  listening  sentinel, 
Where  ancient  cannon,  and  beldariies  old 
As  the  guns,  peer  down  from  the  citadel. 

Once  more,  once  only,  they  shall  bear 
My  litter  up  the  steep  ascent 
That  pierces,  mounting  stair  on  stair. 
The  inmost  ring  of  battlement. 
Oft-times  that  frowning  gate  I've  pass'd. 
(This  time,  but  one,  shall  be  the  last), 
Where  the  tribal  daemon's  image  stands 
Crowning  the  arch,  and  on  the  side 
Are  scarlet  prints  of  woman's  hands. 
Farewell !  and  forth  must  the  lady  ride, 
Her  face  unveiled,  in  rich  attire, 
She  strikes  the  stone  with  fingers  red, 
"  Farewell !  the  palace,  to  the  pyre 
We  follow,  widows  of  the  dead  !  " 

Nowadays,  the  wives  of  dead  chiefs,  not  being 
allowed  to  commit  sati,  are  sent  to  end  their 
days  in  the  old  palace.  We  were  told  that  about 
three  hundred  women  were  shut  up  there,  wives 
of  late  brothers  or  cousins  of  the  royal  house ; 
and  lately  all  the  wives  of  the  present  man  and 

3A 


370  JODHPUR 

his  brother  had  been  sent  there  too.  Poor  things, 
it  must  be  terribly  dreary,  and  hot  in  summer  ; 
but  as  a  Rajput  lady  is  brought  up  to  feel,  that 
from  her  birth  her  "  life  is  a  sacrifice,"  and 
that  it  is  only  of  her  father's  clemency  she  was 
not  sent  to  the  shades  by  a  dose  of  opium  as 
soon  as  she  saw  the  light,  perhaps  the  semblance 
of  life,  which  is  her  portion  up  here,  appears 
by  contrast  a  precious  gift.  The  perusal  of 
Colonel  Tod's  Annals  of  "the  Land  of  Princes" 
raises  a  marvellously  fascinating  picture  of  the 
strangely  poetical  life  and  ideals  of  this  tenacious 
race,  which  has  maintained  its  character  unim- 
paired, and  clung  to  its  customs  and  codes  of 
honour  undismayed  through  so  many  revo- 
lutions of  the  wheel  of  the  centuries.  The 
grandeur  of  their  conception  of  the  immortality 
of  the  race,  and  of  the  paramount  importance,  of 
the  "good  name,"  which  far  transcends  the 
momentary  interests  of  the  individual's  present 
existence  of  fleeting  pleasure  or  pain,  cannot 
fail  to  inspire  a  great  admiration  for  their  stead- 
fast grasp  of  a  fine  idea  and  their  patient 
untiring  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  details  of 
duty  as  they  see  it.  "All  is  unstable,"  their 
poets  cry  ;  "  life  is  like  the  scintillation  of  a  fire- 
fly ;  house  and  land  depart,  but  a  good  name 
endures  for  ever."  We  have  been  constrained 
in  the  interests  of  true  righteousness,  as  it  has 
shown  itself  to  us,  to  forbid  many  of  the  certainly 
indefensible  customs  and  practices  in  which  their 
ideals  took  shape.     Yet  it  cannot  but  be  a  cause 


COOL    DARK    HALLS  371 

of  anxiety  to  all  who  value  a  strong  and  manly- 
character,  lest  our  attempt  to  preserve  the  race 
in  its  characteristic  civilisation  should  be  stulti- 
fied by  this  necessary  curtailment  of  the  natural 
expression  of  their  ideals :  and  the  ennobling 
conceptions  be  destroyed  that  have  from  time 
immemorial  been  the  preserving  salt  of  the  race. 

We  penetrated  the  cool  dark  passages  of  the 
palace,  and  found  most  of  the  halls  within  the 
thick  walls,  through  which  the  sun  never  pene- 
trated, were  of  the  usual  rather  disappointing 
kind.  They  showed  a  gradual  decline  in  taste, 
from  the  early  decorations  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  century,  when  the  walls  were  covered 
with  blue  and  gold  and  crimson,  like  the  illumina- 
tion of  a  vellum  page,  to  the  tortured  mirror- 
mosaic  of  the  halls  of  the  last  generation.  The 
pictures  range  from  quaint  native  paintings  of 
Shah  Jehan  and  the  other  Mogul  emperors,  to 
old-fashioned  prints  of  English  hunting  scenes, 
and  show  how  the  Rahtores  have  marched  with 
the  times  and  adapted  their  tastes  to  those  of 
their  suzerains.  But  the  treasury  was  charac- 
teristically Eastern,  with  such  a  show  of  jewels 
as  dazzled  Aladdin  in  the  cave;  some  splendid 
stones,  pearls  and  emeralds  as  big  as  pigeon's 
eggs,  tiaras,  necklaces  and  rings,  many  very 
ugly  things  and  many  of  great  beauty  ;  jewelled 
weapons  and  sheaths,  and  splendid  silver  and 
silver-gilt  trappings  for  horses  and  elephants, 
silver  horse-collars  and  silver  ear-rings  for  the 
elephants,  at  least  half  the  size  of  my  head. 


372  JODHPUR 

From  the  balconies,  overhanging  like  swallows' 
nests,  the  sheer  and  dizzy  precipice  of  wall  and 
rock,  the  vast  view  sweeps  away,  in  endless 
stretches  of  delicate  desert  tints,  for  miles,  to  a  dis- 
tance melting  in  lilac-grey  haze  into  the  amber  sky  : 
lines  of  dust  mark  the  track  of  the  cattle  stringing 
home  from  pasture.  Spread  out  like  a  map  at  our 
feet  lay  the  old  city,  at  the  foot  of  the  rock,  in  its 
girdle  of  green,  with  flat-roofed  houses,  the  red 
sandstone  palaces  of  the  Thakoors,  and  the 
pyramidal  points  of  its  400  temples  peering  above 
the  trees.  Here,  as  in  other  places  in  this  land,  the 
bulk  of  the  population  by  no  means  belongs  to  the 
noble  ruling  race  of  Rajputs,  of  which  the  poorest 
member  is  kin  to  the  King,  and  would  not  put  his 
hand  to  a  plough  or  to  any  occupation  which  might 
be  deemed  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  warrior  who 
bows  only  to  the  sun,  his  horse  and  his  sword. 

There  is,  however,  a  large  population  of  miscel- 
laneous castes  in  the  city  :  Brahmans  and  Charans 
and  others,  from  whose  ranks  come  those  who  carry 
on  the  work  of  civil  administration,  and  those  who 
fill  the  frequently  hereditary  offices  in  the  chief's 
court  and  cabinet,  or  keep  the  traditions  and  re- 
cords of  the  past  ages  and  the  genealogies.  The 
trading  classes  are  usually  Jains,  and  they  are 
frequently  descended  from  Rajputs,  who  have  not 
maintained  in  its  purity  the  rigid  marriage  law  of 
the  land,  and  have  therefore  lost  the  right  to  a 
place  in  the  *'  libro  d'oro  "  of  the  pure-blooded  clans, 
with  whom  their  ruler  even  is  reckoned  only 
first  amongst  equals.    A  greater  contrast  to  the 


RIGID    MARRIAGE    LAWS  Z72> 

servile  attitude  of  the  Mogul  courtiers,  towards 
their  lord,  can  hardly  be  conceived  :  no  doubt 
this  partly  accounts  for  the  dignified  and  frank 
and  open  bearing  of  the  members  of  the  clans. 
Every  member  of  a  pure-blooded  clan  is  a  gentle- 
man of  high  degree,  and  with  his  tall,  erect  carriage 
and  graceful,  manly  bearing,  his  strong  black  beard 
parted  in  the  middle  and  brushed  back,  like  tiger's 
whiskers,  towards  his  ears  and  then  knotted  at  the 
top  of  his  head,  he  looks  every  inch  the  son  of 
century-long  lineage  of  warrior  ancestors.  His  chi- 
valrous high-minded  sense  of  honour,  the  simple, 
straightforward,  easy  courtesy  of  his  manners — 
a  combination  of  self-reliant  independence  and 
perfect  consideration  for  others — are  worthy  of  the 
best  traditions  of  the  age  of  chivalry. 

The  peculiarly  strict  marriage  laws  must  make 
it  no  easy  matter  to  arrange  a  suitable  marriage  for 
a  Rajput.  For  here,  in  the  land  where  still  exist 
the  best  specimens  of  early  institutions,  the  tribal 
period  has  survived,  and  the  primitive  marriage 
customs  of  the  very  earliest  days  are  still  preserved. 
In  those  days,  citizenship  and  country  and  ruler 
counted  for  nothing,  and  religion  and  kinship  were 
of  supreme  importance  in  determining  a  man's  life. 
Here  marriage  is  not  only  limited  to  the  ranks 
of  those  of  the  same  religion,  or  caste,  but  abso- 
lutely prohibited  amongst  blood  relations,  of  even 
the  most  remote  degree,  who  in  any  way  trace  their 
descent  to  a  common  ancestor,  real  or  reputed  The 
difficulties  which  arise  may  be  imagined  when,  as  a 
high  authority  tells  us,  "  widespread  and  numerous 


374  JODHPUR 

clans  are  nothing  else  but  great  circles  of  blood 
relationships,  including  perhaps  a  hundred  thou- 
sand persons  who  cannot  lawfully  intermarry."  A 
clan  of  pure  Rajputs  may  be  scattered  abroad 
under  half  a  dozen  different  rulers,  but  neverthe- 
less they  hold  marriage  between  two  members  of 
the  clan  as  quite  beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility. 
And  a  Rajput  clansman,  whose  family  has  left 
the  ancestral  home,  if  he  returned  to  take  a  wife, 
or  to  marry  a  daughter,  would  have  to  submit  his 
genealogy  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  very  strict  and 
careful  inquiry,  to  satisfy  the  scruples  of  those  with 
whom  he  meditated  an  alliance,  that  there  was 
neither  a  common  ancestor  nor  a  mesalliance  in 
the  family.  No  wonder  that  a  Rajput  is  brought  up 
to  be  able  to  recite  his  own  genealogy,  and  that  there 
is  a  special  class,  a  hereditary  College  of  Heralds, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  preserve  the  records  and  pedi- 
grees of  the  clans. 

Udai  Sing,  the  son  of  the  Jodhpur  ruler  whom 
Akbar  subdued,  was  sent  as  a  hostage  to  the  court 
at  Agra,  and  he  only  obtained  the  restoration  of 
the  former  possessions  of  his  house  by  giving  his 
sister  Jodhbai  as  wife  to  the  Emperor :  it  was  not 
until  considerably  more  than  a  century  later  that 
the  proud  Sesodias  of  Oodeypore,  who  had  main- 
tained their  independence,  readmitted  the  Rahtores 
to  the  privilege  of  intermarriage  with  their  clan, 
which  had  been  forfeited  by  the  mesalliance.  And 
even  then  the  Sesodias  only  made  the  concession 
on  the  condition  that  the  son  of  the  Oodeypore 
princess  should  always  succeed  to  the  State. 


BRIDAL    FEUDS  375 

This  difficulty  in  forming  suitable  alliances  and 
providing  husbands  for  daughters,  who  yet  must 
not  remain  unmarried,  to  some  extent  accounts  for 
the  two  pernicious  practices  of  female  infanticide 
and  polygamy.  It  is  no  doubt  the  originating  cause 
of  many  of  the  romantic  feuds  and  the  raids  and 
contests  for  the  hand  of  a  Rajput  princess  which 
fill  the  annals  of  this  country.  For  the  supply  of 
wives  lay  entirely  in  the  hands  of  neighbouring  and 
perhaps  rival  clans,  who  might  at  any  moment,  on 
some  nice  point  of  honour  or  jealous  punctilio, 
refuse  to  give  their  daughter.  Rajput  history 
is  thus  filled  with  disputes  over  brides  and  be- 
trothals. The  peculiar  laws  of  succession  opened 
the  way  also  for  interference  of  the  wife's  kinsfolk 
and  to  bitter  quarrels  such  as  that  which  indirectly 
led  to  the  foundation  of  Jodhpur. 

On  our  first  visit  to  the  Fort  we  retraced  our 
steps,  down  the  steep  way,  crowded  with  people  and 
camels,  by  which  we  had  come  up,  but  next  time  I 
sketched  up  there  I  passed  down  into  the  town  soon 
after  sunset,  by  a  steep  road  between  high  walls, 
and  under  picturesque  gateways,  by  a  way  I  had 
not  been  before.  At  every  turn,  a  new  picture 
seemed  to  unfold  and  made  me  long  to  sketch,  but 
I  had  already  made  the  mistake  of  trying  to  do  too 
much  in  the  time  at  my  disposal,  and  now  it  was 
getting  dark.  At  the  lowest  gateway,  a  carriage 
was  waiting  for  me,  and  we  drove  off  at  the  most 
reckless  speed  through  the  narrow  streets.  I  could 
not  prevail  on  the  coachman — who,  by  the  way,  had 
been  educated  at  Agra  College  and  spoke  English 


376  JODHPUR 

— to  go  more  slowly.  I  was  sorry,  as  there  is 
much  in  the  houses  of  this  quaint  old  city 
which  is  picturesque  and  architecturally  beautiful. 
The  most  ordinary  houses  are  covered  with  ex- 
quisite stone  work,  traceries  and  carved  latticed 
windows  ;  overhanging  cornices,  with  drooping 
pendants,  catch  the  light  at  every  turn,  whilst  the 
projecting,  hooded,  crescent-shaped  eaves,  which 
some  one  aptly  compares  to  drooping  gulls'  wings, 
cast  deep  shadows  on  the  surface.  But  all  this,  and 
the  fountains  within  marble  balustrades  under  the 
shelter  of  fine  trees ;  the  groups  of  women  with 
brass  pots,  draped  in  brick-red  and  old-gold  em- 
broidered saris  ;  the  market  with  sacks  of  golden 
corn,  and  traders  squatting  under  plaited  straw 
umbrellas,  all  flashed  past  me  in  dazzling  pictures, 
as  we  dashed  through  the  town,  scattering  the 
people  on  both  sides,  and  running  the  most  im- 
minent risk — it  seemed  to  me — of  cutting  off  toes 
and  even  ending  lives. 

In  Major  Loch's  house  I  met  a  high-caste 
Brahman  gentleman.  Chatter  Booj,  in  pink  pug- 
garee and  orange-coloured  robes,  who  acted  under 
my  host  in  the  business  of  superintending  the  Ma- 
haraja's land  revenue  and  department  of  Woods 
and  Forests.  His  brother,  Hans  Raj — or  the  Royal 
Goose — kindly  piloted  me  on  another  sketching 
expedition  to  the  old  town.  We  started  soon  after 
ten  o'clock  breakfast,  but  the  sun  was  burning  hot 
— hotter  than  anything  I  had  experienced  before 
— when  we  got  out  in  the  Dhan  Mandi  (wheat 
market)  to  look  round.   It  was  full  of  local  colour, 


AN    ORIENTAL   MENAGE  m 

but  really  the  heat  was  too  great  for  me  to  feel  able 
to  take  much  interest  in  anything,  and  we  drove 
on  past  the  Gutab  Sagar,  a  large  tank  surrounded 
by  temples,  to  the  foot  of  the  steep  ascent  to  the 
Castle  where  I  made  my  first  sketch.  We  went 
into  the  Talati  Mai,  once  a  beautiful  palace,  now 
sadly  knocked  about  and  disfigured  with  white- 
wash, and  used  as  the  Durbar  High  School,  with 
an  Englishwoman  as  head.  As  we  entered  the  girls' 
side,  a  little  damsel  rushed  up  to  my  companion 
and  hugged  him  ;  this  was  his  little  niece,  a 
daughter  of  Chatter  Booj. 

The  Maharaja's  little  daughter  of  thirteen  had 
an  English  governess,  whom  we  met  at  dinner,  and 
thought  must  have  rather  a  dull  time  in  her  very 
Oriental  mdnage.  Her  pupil  was  very  strictly 
purdah,  and  only  allowed  to  put  her  nose  out  of 
the  house  after  dark.  She  and  her  governess  and 
women  were  locked  into  the  upper  part  of  the 
house  at  night,  by  the  guard  who  kept  the  key. 
The  skirt  of  her  best  frock,  I  heard,  consisted  of 
an  elaborate  combination  of  wedge-shaped  pieces 
of  different  sizes,  and  measured  fifty  yards  round 
the  hem.  The  Court  dresses  of  the  men  of  the 
Sing  family  seem  to  be  made  on  much  the  same 
plan,  and  consist  of  pink  muslin  petticoats,  con- 
taining at  least  one  hundred  yards  of  muslin,  but 
tied  in  halfway  down  with  scarves,  so  that  the 
lower  part  stands  stiffly  out.  They  sway  about 
when  the  wearer  moves,  and  must  be  very  difficult 
to  manage  with  dignity.  The  whole  family  are,  as 
one  would  expect  from  the  family  traditions,  de- 

3B 


378  JODHPUR 

voted  to  horses  and  hunting,  and  great  sportsmen, 
and  said  not  to  know  what  fear  is.  The  story  goes 
that  once  when  the  Maharaja  and  his  brother 
Maharaj  Purtab  Sing  were  young,  emulating  the 
achievements  of  their  ancestors,  they  entered  un- 
attended a  lion's  cave  with  a  lantern,  and  no 
weapon  but  a  club,  and  bearded  and  brained  him 
in  his  lair. 

This  country  is  celebrated  all  over  India  for 
pig-sticking,  and  the  pigs  are  strictly  preserved. 
Arrangements  were  kindly  made  by  the  Maha- 
raja's brother,  Maharaj  Purtab  Sing,  for  us  to 
have  a  day's  sport ;  and  under  his  auspices  we 
started  off  in  a  four-in-hand  at  six  o'clock  one  morn- 
ing, before  it  was  light,  forthe  rendezvous,  about  five 
miles  distant.  Major  Loch  had  unfortunately  broken 
his  arm,  and,  of  course,  could  not  come  with  us, 
so  the  party  consisted  of  Purtab  Sing,  in  a  lovely 
pale  pink  turban  ;  Colonel  Paulet,  the  Resident, 
Colonel  Biddulph,  and  myself.  As  we  galloped  to 
the  scene  of  action  Colonel  Paulet,  hearing  that  I 
had  not  had  any  pig-sticking  before,  very  kindly 
gave  me  some  useful  hints,  showing  me  how  to 
hold  my  spear,  and  warned  me,  above  all  things, 
not  to  strike  a  pig,  if  his  line  of  progress  converged 
with  mine ;  otherwise,  he  said,  if  I  got  the  spear 
home,  and  the  pig  got  in  front  of  my  horse,  he 
would  infallibly  give  me  a  fall.  Curiously  enough, 
this  very  fate  befell  him,  and  he  got  a  nasty 
spill,  which  shook  him  a  good  deal.  For  a  short 
time  we  were  afraid  he  was  seriously  hurt,  for 
he  lay  on  his   back,  and  we  thought  the  pony 


A    BULLOCK   CART  379 

had  rolled  over  him.  However,  he  was  able  to  be 
driven  home,  and  we  were  relieved  to  find  he  was 
not  really  injured,  but  the  incident  put  an  end  to 
pig-sticking  for  that  day.  We  had  a  splendid  gallop, 
however,  and  I  enjoyed  it  immensely.  I  was 
mounted  on  a  beautiful  bay,  about  fifteen  hands, 
who  carried  me  well,  though  he  was  not  quite  so 
fast  as  others  in  the  field.  Colonel  Biddulph  got 
the  first  spear,  and  by  some  lucky  accident  I  got 
the  second.  The  second  pig,  evading  both  Purtab 
Sing  and  the  Colonel,  turned  to  charge,  and  ran 
right  on  to  my  spear,  which  he  received  full  on  the 
side  of  the  head,  and  was  very  soon  despatched  by 
some  one  else. 

I  spent  part  of  my  spare  time  after  breakfast  one 
morning  with  Mrs.  Biddulph,  drawing  one  of  the 
rough  bullock  carts  of  the  country,  which  are 
most  delightfully  archaic  in  construction,  consist- 
ing simply  of  very  solid  wheels  and  a  sideless 
platform.  The  carts  reminded  me  of  a  story  which 
a  friend,  a  Kentish  squire,  used  to  tell.  He  made 
a  journey  in  Palestine,  and,  being  an  admirable 
draughtsman,  brought  home  a  number  of  ex- 
cellent sketches.  One  winter  evening,  after  his 
return,  the  squire  gave  a  lecture  to  his  village,  ancf 
showed  a  number  of  his  drawings.  Amongst  them 
was  a  cart  very  similar  to  that  which  I  drew  at 
Jodhpur,  and  the  squire  explained  to  his  audience 
that  it  was  a  type  of  the  most  primitive  con- 
veyance known,  and  that  it  had  existed  in  precisely 
this  same  form  in  Palestine  from  the  earliest  times, 
and  indeed  that  it  was  probably  a  cart  or  waggon 


38o  JODHPUR 

of  this  description  that  Joseph  had  sent  down 
from  Egypt  to  bring  his  father  and  his  household 
goods  from  Canaan.  Afterwards  an  old  farmer 
came  up  and  expressed  his  great  interest  in  all  he 
had  heard,  adding  that  there  was  one  thing  above 
all  others  which  had  interested  him,  and  that  was 
the  cart.  "  For  now,"  he  said,  "  I  understand  why 
Joseph  said  to  his  brethren,  '  See  that  ye  fall  not 
out  by  the  way.'  " 

On  the  site  of  the  original  capital  of  Marwar, 
between  three  and  four  miles  from  Jodhpur,  there 
is  now  only  a  heap  of  ruins,  a  few  houses,  and  a  cool 
garden  with  shady  trees.  The  water  here  is  good, 
and  so  for  centuries  the  women  of  Jodhpur  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  trudging  out  every  morning 
to  draw  water,  as  that  in  the  town  was  brackish 
and  so  scanty  that  in  dry  seasons  citizens  moved 
elsewhere.  The  present  Maharaja,  Jeswant  Sing, 
constructed  a  canal  to  supply  the  town,  and  a  great 
reservoir  or  tank  for  storing  it ;  but  I  understand 
the  people  still  prefer  to  send  their  women  to  fetch 
it  from  the  old  spot,  and  regard  the  water  that  comes, 
up  to  the  top  of  the  Fort  in  iron  pipes  as  distinctly 
uncanny. 

In  the  shady  garden  stand  tombs  of  the  Kings. 
When  the  Rajput  warrior  fell  in  battle  he  was 
not  burnt,  but  buried  where  he  fell,  under  a  cairn. 
Usually,  however,  he  was  carried  forth  armed  at  all 
points  with  shield  and  sword, 

"  High-seated,  swathed  in  many  a  shawl, 
By  priests  who  scatter  flowers,  and  mourn ; " 

to  the  pyre  which  filled  a  deep  trench  and  there,.. 


Ifel^ 


A  BULLOCK  CART,  JODHPUR 


A    MEMORIAL    SERVICE  381 

his  head  laid  on  the  knees  of  his  queen,  his  body 
was  consumed  amidst  the  eddying  smoke  of  the 
funeral  pyre.  With  one  Rajput  king  eighty-four 
widows  perished  in  the  flames.  The  elaborate  tombs 
over  their  ashes  here  are  of  red  sandstone,  and 
consist  each  of  a  circular  or  octagonal  hall  sup- 
ported by  columns,  approached  by  steep  steps  and 
crowned  by  a  flat  dome.  At  the  side  opposite  the 
entrance  is  a  small  square  sanctuary,  with  a  high 
flame-shaped  ribbed  and  fluted  dome  above  it. 

Most  of  the  tombs  are  in  the  Jain  style  of  architec- 
ture, and  all  but  the  most  recent  are  covered  outside 
and  inside  with  a  profusion  of  elaborate  sculpures, 
and  innumerable  bats  hang  in  clusters  from  the 
ceilings.  Monkeys  had  made  their  home  here  too, 
and  I  made  acquaintance  with  a  huge  grey  ape 
whose  tail  was  quite  the  longest  I  had  seen,  and 
hung  down  like  a  bell-rope  over  the  wall  upon  which 
he  sat.  Until  I  had  closely  investigated  the  matter 
I  could  not  believe  it  was  all  his  personal  property. 
However  the  monkeys  and  bats  had  not  the  place 
quite  to  themselves,  for  in  one  tomb  which  we  entered 
a  memorial  service  was  going  on.  Before  the  altar 
stood  a  man  burning  incense  (loban),  waving  his 
hands  backwards  and  forwards.  He  then  rang  a 
bell,  and  an  old  woman  beat  a  gong  with  much 
assiduity,  until  we  came  ;  then  her  attention  was 
concentrated  in  an  attempt  to  persuade  Major  Loch 
to  give  her  one  hundred  rupees,  which  she  said 
would  provide  for  her  for  the  rest  of  her  days. 

Much  too  soon  came  the  moment  when  we  had 
to  begin  to  prepare  to  leave  India  and  all  its  charms 


382  JODHPUR 

and  wonders,  and  queer  sounds  and  smells,  and  the 
unaccustomed  ways  of  its  picturesque  people.  We 
were  very  sorry  when,  after  saying  good-bye  to  our 
kind  host,  the  train  drew  up  in  front  of  his  house  to 
take  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Biddulph  on  board.  They 
were  bound  for  Ajmere,  and  we  went  together  to 
Mar  war,  where  at  seven  o'clock  we  settled  ourselves 
in  the  train  for  the  night.  Next  day,  March  18,  we 
spent  some  hours  in  Ahmedabad  in  the  greatest 
heat  we  had  experienced,  which  quite  sapped  our 
energy.  In  the  circumstances  to  plunge  into  sight- 
seeing, with  as  much  determination  as  the  interest 
of  the  place  and  the  short  time  at  our  disposal  really 
demanded,  was  impossible.  Still  we  managed  to  see 
many  of  the  interesting  buildings  for  which  the 
place  is  justly  celebrated.  First,  the  Jumma  Musjid, 
with  its  two-hundred-and-sixty  pillars  and  fifteen 
domes  —  a  fifteenth-century  building  raised  by 
Sultan  Ahmad  I.,  beside  which  is  his  mausoleum, 
and  beyond  the  tombs  of  his  Queens  ;  and  the  cele- 
brated lattice  windows  carved  in  yellow  sandstone, 
in  the  Sidi  Said's  mosque — said  to  be  the  finest 
work  of  its  kind  that  exists. 

We  went  also  to  a  Turcoman  mosque,  rather 
severe  in  style,  and  to  the  tomb  and  mosque  of  Rani 
Sipri  (a  daughter  of  Ahmad  Shah).  These  are  two 
beautiful  little  buildings  of  yellow  sandstone,  rich 
in  carving  and  most  delicate  lattice  work.  This  was 
all  we  felt  up  to.  I  have  a  very  vivid  recollection  of 
feeling  the  force  of  the  sun  to  such  an  extent  that 
I  put  up  an  umbrella  between  my  solar  topee  and 
the  roof  of  the  ticca-gharry.  After  lunch  at  the  rail- 


■ 


m 


A  FEEDING-PLACE  FOR  BIRDS, 
AHMEDABAD 

"These  picturesque  objects,  somewhat  like  pigeon- 
cotes,  are  characteristic  of  this  city  of  the  Jains." 


Plate  38 


M 

v^fei^ji^ 

^H 

^HeF^^^S 

«:''. 

^^^^H^- 

K  t     "WS 

^vl^p    ^^9^S2Lf<'^^''^^^^^^l^^^^^^^l 

^^^M^^n^" 

K  '  ^fll 

H^  -B 

jSilk'i^'fe^^ 

,'*_1i_>t«ii«i»„  v„*, ,. 

^™^*°^i 

AHMEDABAD 


383 


way  station  I  spent  the  afternoon  sketchingamongst 
a  dense  crowd  of  Hindus,  fanned  all  the  while  by 
one  of  them,  and  feeling  as  though  I  were  sitting 
at  the  mouth  of  a  blast  furnace;  the  centre  of  attrac- 
tion in  my  subject  was  a  Jain  feeding-place  for  birds 
— like  a  glorified  pigeon-cote  :  a  familiar  object  in 
this  city  of  the  Jains.  By  9.30  p.m.  we  were  in  the 
train  for  Bombay. 

The  marvels  of  Ahmedabad  did  not  obliterate 
from  our  minds  the  vivid  impression  of  Rajputana 
and  the  Rajputs. 


A  MARWARI  TRADER 


CHAPTER    XX 
CEYLON 

Our  first  impressions  of  Colombo  were  those  of 
enchantment.  To  be  on  shore  once  again,  after  the 
voyage  from  Brindisi,  was  in  itself  a  delight,  but 
over  and  above  that  was  the  novelty  of  the  whole 
scene.  Wherever  I  had  been  before  I  had  recognised 
something  familiar,  but  here  everything  was  new. 
People,  dress,  vegetation,  houses,  all  were  strange, 
and  all  were  more  or  less  beautiful  in  their  way. 
The  people  were  refreshingly  unlike  those  we  had 
just  left  on  board  ship.  The  women  with  little 
clothing,  the  men  with  less  and  less,  and  the 
children  with  none.  This  state  of  things  does 
not  appear  odd,  on  account  of  the  strange  rich 
colour  of  their  glossy  red  or  brown  skins,  and  also 
perhaps  because  of  the  beauty  and  suppleness  of 
their  figures,  and  the  absence  of  self-conscious- 
ness in  their  stately  bearing.  Many  of  the  men 
wear  little  more  than  a  duster  round  their  loins 
(these  are  for  the  most  part  of  the  coolie  class), 
others  have  what  looks   like  a   white   tablecloth 

3c 


SS6  CEYLON 

wound  round  their  waist  extending  to  their  heels, 
and  a  white  jacket.  Their  hair  is  drawn  back  into 
a  tight  knot  at  the  back  of  the  head,  and  kept  in  its 
place  with  a  tortoiseshell  comb,  making  them  look 
from  behind  like  women.  The  women  wear  a  kind 
of  silk  petticoat,  and  short  jacket  which  barely 


NATIVE  DRESS 


meets  it,  sometimes  also  a  scarf  over  their  bodies, 
necklaces  of  beads  round  their  necks,  and  orna- 
ments in  their  noses.  Very  frequently  the  whole  of 
a  child's  costume  consists  of  a  string  of  beads 
round  its  waist.  Unfortunately,  the  effect  of  civili- 
sation and  fashion  is  beginning  to  show  itself,  and 
here  and  there  natives  are  seen  in  European  dress, 
or  in  British  prints  instead  of  the  native  cloths. 


COLOMBO  3^7 

It  was  a  pleasant  change,  from  the  crowded  and 
noisy  saloon  of  the  ship,  to  breakfast  in  the  cool 
spacious  hall  of  the  Grand  Oriental  Hotel,  with 
tables  covered  with  gorgeous  flowers  and  a  pro- 
fusion of  mangoes  and  other  fruit,  and  to  be  waited 
on  by  noiseless,  slipperless  brown  gnomes,  instead 
of  by  cockney  stewards.  After  breakfast  we  drove 
in  rikshaws  along  deep  red-coloured  roads,  nicely 
watered  by  the  rain  of  the  night  before,and  through 
the  native  town,  embowered  in  unfamiliar  trees,  all 
bright-green  and  fresh  looking,  some  of  them 
beautifully  covered  with  clusters  of  brilliant 
flowers,  high  up  to  the  top  of  their  lofty  boughs,  and 
some  heavy  with  fruit ;  among  them  were  bread- 
fruit and  jack-fruit  trees.  The  flamboyant  tree 
(Princiana  cEgici)  with  its  flat  top  was  just  then  in 
full  bloom :  it  is  of  no  great  height,  grows  very 
mucl\  like  an  acacia,  and  is  covered  with  clusters  of 
brilliant  orange-red  flowers.  It  lines  the  wide  roads, 
hangs  over  the  water's  edge,  and  is  seen  in  all  the 
gardens.  Here  and  there  the  bougainvilleas  hung  in 
great  festoons,  whilst  everywhere  tall  palms  of 
various  kinds  sheltered  the  houses  or  grew  down 
to  the  water's  edge.  Beneath  the  larger  trees  all 
manner  of  flowering  and  leaf  plants  and  shrubs, 
such  as  scarlet  hibiscus  and  crotons,  were  to  be 
seen  in  and  around  the  small  gardens  in  front 
of  the  low  native  houses,  of  which  the  gently 
sloping  roofs  tiled,  or  thatched  with  palm-leaves, 
project  outwards  to  form  a  deep  verandah,  where 
the  native  delights  to  sit  or  squat,  and  transact  his 
business.  Some  of  the  shops  are  hung  with  plan- 


SSS  CEYLON 

tains  and  bananas,  delicious  mangoes,  pines,  dark 
green  oranges,  and  tree-tomatoes,  whilst  others  are 
bright  with  native  wares,  stuffs,  &c.  It  was  very 
curious  and  amusing  to  pass  through  this  quietly 
busy  little  town,  in  and  out  amongst  the  crowds  of 
people,  the  carts  drawn  by 
tiny  little  buffaloes,  and  the 
jinnrikshaws. 

Later  on  in  the  day 
when  we  went  to  call  on 
the  Governor,  Sir  Arthur 
Gordon,*  whom  we  did  not 
find  at  home,  the  town  was 
alive  with  P.  &  O.  passen- 
gers spending  their  money 
RESTING  with  true  Australian  liber- 

ality, but  by  seven  o'clock 
comparative  quiet  reigned.  The  intense  heat 
warned  us  that  it  would  be  wise  to  start  for  Kandy 
as  soon  as  possible.  Our  preparations  for  leaving 
at  seven  o'clock  the  next  morning  were  superin- 
tended, with  much  apparent  interest,  by  a  green 
lizard,  about  two  feet  long,  which  came  out  from 
among  the  rafters  for  his  supper  of  flies,  and  gazed  at 
us  intently.  There  are  no  words  to  describe  the  heat. 
Fortunately  it  rained  hard  in  the  night,  and  the 
air  was  comparatively  cool  when  we  left  Colombo 
next  morning.  Before  starting  I  had  written  to  Sir 
Arthur  Gordon  to  say  that  the  heat  was  driving  us 
up  to  the  mountains,  and  at  the  third  station  a  long 
telegraphic  message  was  handed  in,  expressing  his 

*  Now  Lord  Stanmore. 


THE    ASCENT  TO    KANDY  389 

regret  at  not  having  known  sooner  of  our  being  in 
Colombo,  and  kindly  asking  us  to  stay  with  him 
in  Kandy  when  he  came  up  there.  For  about  two 
hours  the  train  kept  on  the  level  through  jungle, 
marsh,  and  paddy-field,  and  we  passed  herds  of 
dusty  brown  buffaloes.  Though  luxuriantly  green, 
it  is  a  terribly  unhealthy  district :  indeed  I  was  told 
that,  when  making  the  railway,  it  was  found  neces- 
sary to  take  the  coolies  back  to  Colombo  every 
evening,  to  avoid  the  deadly  night  air  of  this  neigh- 
bourhood. Having  traversed  this  fiat  bitof  country, 
we  took  on  a  powerful  engine,  and  began  the  beauti- 
ful ascent  to  Kandy,  climbing  by  many  zigzags  the 
precipitous  side  of  a  rocky  mountain  into  a  cooler 
climate.  At  every  turn  fresh  and  more  beautiful 
views  opened  out  before  us  on  the  right,  extending 
over  a  sea  of  vivid  green  jungle  which  receded  ever 
further  below  us  and  melted  away  into  deep  blue. 
Ridge  upon  ridge  of  dark  mountain  lay  beyond, 
culminating  in  the  heights  about  Adam's  Peak. 

After  reaching  the  summit  of  the  pass  at  a  height 
of  1600  feet,  the  line  descended  a  little  to  Perade- 
niya,  and  before  midday  we  reached  Kandy.  Before 
the  Government  cut  the  new  road  from  Colombo  to 
Kandy,  this  journey  took  seven  days  to  accomplish ; 
we  had  done  it  in  four  hours. 

On  the  way  to  the  Queen's  Hotel  we  passed  a 
stately  old  gentleman  who  might  have  been  taken 
for  a  doctor  of  divinity  had  he  worn  other  clothes 
than  a  white  duster  round  his  middle.  His  costume 
was  completed  by  an  umbrella,  a  tortoiseshell 
comb,  and  a  pair  of  gold  spectacles. 


390  CEYLON 

It  was  good  to  be  in  a  comfortable  room  over- 
looking the  beautiful  lake,  facing  the  richly  wooded 
hills  on  the  further  side,  with  the  pleasant  sound 
of  the  rustling  leaves  of  the  mango-tree  coming  in 
through  the  open  window. 

In  the  late  afternoon  we  drove  to  the  celebrated 
Botanical  Gardens  of  Peradeniya,  about  three 
miles  off,  on  the  banks  of  the  great  river  of 
Ceylon,  the  Mahawelli  Ganga.  The  gardens 
extend  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  and,  as 
all  kinds  of  plants  have  been  imported  here  for 
the  sake  of  making  experiments,  they  are  full  of 
beautiful  and  interesting  trees  and  plants,  both 
European  and  exotic.  Near  the  entrance  there  is 
a  very  fine  avenue  of  india-rubber  trees  {Fiats 
elasticd),  and  inside  the  gardens  there  is  an  equally 
good  specimen  of  this  same  tree.  It  must  be 
eighty  feet  high,  and  is  immensely  wide-spreading, 
with  crowded  projecting  roots,  like  small  mountain 
ranges,  running  away  from  the  great  trunk.  These 
roots  are  as  big  as  crocodiles,  and  remind  one  of 
those  animals  both  on  account  of  their  shape  and  of 
the  lines  which  they  take.  The  branches  throw 
down  suckers  to  the  earth  or  to  the  roots,  and  these, 
attaching  themselves  below,  become  independent 
trunks.  For  all  the  tree  is  so  big,  it  was  not  planted 
more  than  fifty  years  ago.  Here  was  \hQAniherstia 
iwbilis,  from  Malacca,  a  forest  tree  covered  with 
beautiful  rich  red  flowers  hanging  in  festoons  all 
over  it.  We  saw  besides  nutmeg-  and  clove-trees, 
cabbage-palms,  travellers'  trees  (belonging  to  the 
same  order  as  the  banana)  which  grow   in   the 


PERADENIYA 


391 


shape  of  a  fan,  areca-nut  palms,  talipot,  and  the 
wonderful  coco  de  mer  of  the  Seychelles,  for  one 
specimen  of  which  the  Emperor  Rudolph  11. 
offered  four  thousand  florins,  on  account  of  the 
medicinal   qualities   which    it    was    supposed    to 


— ^"-'-'^^f-^^. 


A  FICUS  ELAbflCA,   PEKADENn  A 


possess.  The  Nicolaia  hemisphcErica,  the  most 
original  plant  that  I  have  ever  come  across,  was 
there  also.  It  flowers  close  to  the  ground,  with  a 
red  lily-like  bloom  on  a  thick  succulent  stalk,  and 
grows,  bamboo-fashion,  in  a  tall  shrub.  The  giant 
bamboos  are  said  to  grow  at  the  rate  of  from  eight 
to  twelve  inches  in  twenty-four  hours. 

As  usual  in  these  parts,  the  twilight  lasted  but 


392  CEYLON 

a  very  short  time,  and  we  had  to  drive  home  in 
the  dark. 

I  was  up  early  the  following  morning,  and  at 
7  A.M.  started  on  a  delightful  two-mile  walk.  It  was 
hot,  but  not  too  hot,  and  everything  was  wringing 
wet,  after  heavy  rain  in  the  night.  I  took  my  way 
along  LadyHorton's  Drive,  a  road  which  runs  right 
round  the  lake,  and  winds  about  the  base  of  the 


.^^'^      ^  _,„...       ^    , 


vex  .-^  v^  jgir/:^  ^^^^ 


I.AKE,   KANDY 


hills.  This  lake,  formed  by  building  a  dam  across 
the  valley,  was  made  by  the  last  Raja  of  Kandy, 
and  is  a  delightful  sheet  of  water  ;  its  banks  are 
covered  with  luxuriantly  growing  trees,  bright 
flowers  and  flowering  shrubs. 

On  the  far  side  of  the  lake,  upon  a  hill,  and  a 
little  above  the  road,  stands  a  Buddhist  temple, 
very  curious  and  picturesque,  though  not  nearly  as 
important  as  the  famous  temple  of  the  ''Dalada  "  or 
sacred  tooth.  As  I  approached  the  latter  temple  I 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  THE  TOOTH, 
KANDY— EXTERIOR 

"  The  temple,  though  not  grand  or  imposing,  is  a 
picturesque  building.  It  stands  with  its  back  against 
a  wooded  hill ;  at  its  feet  lies  a  long  moat  or  tank, 
alive  with  tortoises,  and  crossed  by  a  small  bridge 
flanked  by  two  elephants  in  stone.  Above  an  enclosing 
battlemented  wall  looks  out  on  a  flat  expanse  of  the 
greenest  grass.' 


THE   TEMPLE    OF   THE    TOOTH      393 

fell  in  with  a  Mohammedan  from  Colombo,  who 
told  me  that  he  was  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury,  on  sick 
leave.  He  was  a  pleasant  old  fellow,  and  had  his 
little  boy  of  five  with  him.  The  father  wore  a  tall, 
thimble-shaped,  red  and  white  straw  hat,  without 
brim,  on  the  top  of  his  shaven  head,  and  the  usual 
coloured  cloth  in  the  place  of  trousers.  We  visited 
the  temple  together,  and  hetold  me  many  interesting 
things  about  this  celebrated  shrine,  which  is  one  of 
the  most  sacred  spots  of  Buddhism,  and  was  built 
to  receive  the  tooth  of  Buddha,  brought  to  Ceylon 
by  a  devout  princess,  about  fifteen  hundred  years 
ago,  hidden  for  safety  in  her  hair.  Here  the  tooth 
remained  until,  in  1560,  when  it  was  solemnly 
burnt  by  the  Portuguese  Archbishop  of  Goa.  A 
new  tooth  appeared  soon  after,  and  is  still  in  the 
temple,  but  it  measures  about  two  inches  in 
length,  and  has  the  appearance  of  having  belonged 
to  a  crocodile. 

The  temple,  though  not  grand  or  imposing,  is 
one  of  the  most  picturesque  buildings  in  Ceylon, 
and  when  crowded  with  dark  figures,  as  it  was  a 
few  hours  later,  simply  gorgeous.  It  stands  with  its 
back  against  a  wooded  hill ;  at  its  feet  lies  the  long 
moat  or  tank,  alive  with  tortoises,  and  crossed  by  a 
small  bridge  between  two  carved  stone  elephants. 
Above,  an  enclosing  battlemented  wall  looks  out 
upon  a  flat  expanse  of  the  greenest  grass,  dotted 
over  with  trees,  and  fed  down  by  a  few  humped 
cows. 

Several  flights  of  steps  lead  to  an  elaborately 
sculptured  doorway  and  within  an  ante-chapel,  or 

31^ 


394  CEYLON 

vestibule,  opening  on  the  inner  side  to  a  court- 
yard, I  managed  to  get  a  sketch.  In  the  centre 
of  the  courtyard,  and  occupying  the  greater  part 
of  it,  is  the  sacred  building,  a  kind  of  Holy  of 
Holies,  containing  seven  shrines  of  diminishing 
size,  in  which  the  relic  is  hidden.  No  ordinary 
mortal  may  pass  the  veiled  doorway  of  this  sanc- 
tuary. This  mysterious  entrance  formed  the  centre 
of  my  sketch.  The  projecting  roof  above  is  sup- 
ported by  massive  wooden  pillars,  whilst  the  walls, 
corbels  and  ceilings  are  profusely  decorated  in 
bright  colours  with  painted  figures,  grotesque 
monsters  and  floral  patterns.  To  one  side  of  the 
steps,  guarding,  as  it  were,  the  approach,  stands 
a  grotesque  figure  of  a  demon-tiger,  in  high 
relief. 

At  the  foot  of  the  steps  is  a  circular  carved 
stone,  like  an  "inverted  soup-plate  let  into  the 
pavement.  This  is  one  of  the  stones  popularly 
known  in  Ceylon  as  moon-stones,  and  quite 
peculiar  to  the  Island,  nothing  of  the  sort  having 
been  found  in  India  or  elsewhere.  They  are  usually 
elaborately  carved  with  processions  of  animals  and 
rich  scroll  work.  Upon  it  an  orange-robed  priest 
knelt  at  his  devotions,  whilst  an  everchanging 
crowd  of  silent,  shoeless  worshippers  came  and 
went  in  endless  succession,  all  provided  with 
votive  offerings  of  flowers.  These,  lying  about  in 
shallow  baskets,  were  being  sold  at  every  corner 
of  the  temple,  making  patches  of  bright  colour  on 
the  floor,  and  filling  the  air  with  sweet  perfume. 
The  worshippers  were  very  interesting  to  watch  ; 


THE  TEMPLE  OF  THE  TOOTH, 
KANDY— INTERIOR 

"  Several  flights  of  steps  lead  to  a  sculptured  doorway 
and  within  an  antechapel  or  vestibule  opens  on  to  a 
small  courtyard  ;  in  its  centre  is  the  Holy  of  Holies, 
containing  seven  shrines  of  diminishing  size,  and 
within  the  innermost  is  the  Tooth.  The  mysterious 
veiled  doorway  of  this  sanctuary,  which  no  ordinary 
mortal  may  pass,  formed  the  centre  of  my  sketch. 
The  projecting  roof  is  supported  by  massive  wooden 
pillars,  and  the  walls,  corbels  and  ceilings  are  profusely 
painted  with  brightly  coloured  monsters  and  floral 
designs, ' ' 


BUDDHISM  395 

they  were  devout  in  manner,  and  some  of  their 
attitudes  of  worship  were  very  beautiful. 

Buddhism  was  first  preached  in  Ceylon  by 
Mahinda,  son  of  King  Asoka,  about  B.C.  250.  At 
the  Buddhist  Council  of  Patna  it  was  deter- 
mined to  send  out  missionaries  to  spread  the 
religion  of  Buddha,  and  the  king's  son  was  one 
of  the  first  to  go,  accompanied  by  his  sister,  a 
Buddhist  nun.  The  Buddhism  of  Ceylon  is 
amongst  the  purest  and  simplest  now  in  existence, 
but  even  there  has  been  much  corrupted  and  com- 
plicated by  additions,  especially  by  the  absorption 
of  demon-worship  from  the  old  original  religion 
of  the  Sinhalese.  The  Buddhists  of  Ceylon,  like 
those  of  Burma  and  Siam,  follow  the  teachings 
of  the  Lesser  Vehicle,  that  is  to  say  of  the  scrip- 
tures known  as  the  Hina-Yana,  whereas  the 
Buddhists  of  the  north  adhere  to  the  Greater 
Vehicle  or  Maha-Yana,  which  contains,  besides 
the  original  scriptures,  many  books  of  Commen- 
taries on  them.  The  corruptions  of  the  Maha- 
Yana  have  nevertheless  to  some  extent  penetrated 
to  Ceylon,  and  the  Buddhism  found  there  is  very 
far  removed  from  the  original  ascetic  and  severe 
philosophy  of  Sakya  Muni.  No  doubt  that  system 
was  too  arid,  and  had  too  little  of  the  true  charac- 
teristics of  a  religion  about  it  to  satisfy  the  wants 
and  aspirations  of  the  heart  of  the  ordinary  com- 
mon mortal.  Out  of  the  Buddha's  agnostic  philo- 
sophy, therefore,  has  arisen  a  polytheistic  religion, 
with  priests  and  temples,  gods  and  demons,  which 
is  that  prevailing  here. 


396 


CEYLON 


The  little  town  of  Kandy  itself  possesses  no 
fine  buildings  or  architectural  features  worthy  of 
note;  but  the  irregularity  of  its  low  buildings,  the 
bright  awnings,  the  deep  shadows  in  the  frontless 
shops,  the  fruit  and  other  wares,  the  overhanging 
palms,  the  stray  yellow  and  crimson  croton  bushes, 
and  above  all  the  people,  with  their  many-tinted 
skins,  varying  from  Indian  red  to  chocolate,  and 


A   STREET   BARBER 


their  scanty,  but  many-coloured  clothes,  form  an 
ever  changing  mdlange  of  colour,  and  a  study  in 
movement  which  are  in  the  highest  degree  fasci- 
nating and  picturesque.  I  sat  myself  down  in  the 
street,  and,  to  the  amusement  of  the  little  urchins 
of  the  neighbourhood,  naked  and  fat,  endeavoured 
to  portray  a  representative  bit  of  Kandy  life, 
though  I  was  unfortunately  unable  to  introduce 
either  crotons  or  palms  on  this  occasion. 

Knowing  that  a  friend  in  England  had  a  coffee 
plantation  in  this  neighbourhood,  and  finding  that 
Pallekelly,  seven  miles  off,  belonged  to  a  person 
of  the  same  name,  we  started,  at  7.30  the  next 


A  STREET  SCENE  IN  KANDY 

"  Kandy  possesses  no  fine  buildings  or  architectural 
features  worthy  of  note ;  but  the  irregularity  of  its 
low  buildings,  the  bright  awnings,  the  deep  shadows 
in  the  frontless  shops,  the  fruit  and  other  wares,  the 
overhanging  palms,  the  stray  yellow  and  crimson 
Croton  bushes,  and  above  all  the  people,  form  an  ever 
changing  melange  of  colour,  and  a  study  in  movement 
which  are  in  the  highest  degree  fascinating." 


PALLEKELLY  397 

morning,  to  drive  there.  After  two  false  starts, 
due  to  difficulties  with  the  horses,  we  finally  left 
with  a  pair  which  got  over  the  ground  well,  but 
we  had  wasted  an  hour,  and  it  was  now  8.30.  We 
had  the  honour  and  glory  of  a  syce  to  run  with 
us  ;  but  he  sat  at  our  feet  most  of  the  way.  He 
wore  a  red  turban  and  a  pair  of  very  old 
Gordon  tartan  trousers,  cut  short  at  the 
knee.  The  drive,  most  of  the  way  by  the 
river  side,  is  very  beautiful,  passing 
through  every  variety  of  wooded  land- 
scape, with  here  and  there  a  hamlet  of 
native  huts  half  buried  amongst  the  palms 
and  jack-fruit-trees,  beneath  the  shade  of 
which  were  goats,  and  babies  and  chickens, 
hobbled  by  a  string  to  a  piece  of  wood. 
Beyond  the  orange-coloured  river,  end- 
less  forests  stretch  away  to  ridges  of  beautiful 
blue  mountains. 

After  driving  about  six  miles  we  came  to  a 
ferry  in  which  horses,  trap  and  all,  were  punted 
across,  and  almost  immediately  after  entered  the 
plantation  of  Pallekelly.  On  arrival  we  found  that 
the  estate  was  the  property,  not  of  our  friend  but  of 
his  brother,  who  was  absent,  and  we  were  in  some 
doubt  as  to  our  welcome,  coming  unexpectedly 
and  as  strangers,  but  were  quite  put  at  our  ease  by 
the  very  kind  reception  given  us  by  Mr.  Vollar, 
the  manager,  whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Mr. 
Tytler,  to  whom  the  estate  originally  belonged, 
a  celebrated  planter,  and  the  first  cultivator  of 
cocoa.    Mr.  Vollar  had  just  come  in  (ten  o'clock) 


398  CEYLON 

from  his  morning's  work,  but  put  on  his  hat  to 
take  us  out  and  show  us  some  of  the  mysteries  of 
cocoa-growing. 

On  this  estate  coffee  is  almost  a  thing  of  the 
past,  and  there  is  little  tea  grown  ;  it  is  almost 
entirely  given  over  to  the  cultivation  of  cocoa, 
which  seems  to  thrive  well  here.  The  chief  crop 
is  gathered  in  the  autumn,  but  a  small  crop  is 
also  picked  in  the  early  summer,  and  this  we  saw 
ripening  whilst  the  tiny  little  flower  for  the 
autumn  fruit  (it  grows  straight  from  the  stem  of 
the  plant)  was  coming  out.  He  showed  us  how 
the  young  cocoa  plants  are  protected  from  the  sun 
by  branches  from  other  trees,  and  what  the  seed 
or  cocoa-nibs  are  like  inside  the  great  pod  ;  also 
how  india-rubber  is  gathered,  and  how  the  fungus 
in  the  coffee  leaf  shows  itself.  The  heat  drove  us 
in  at  about  eleven  o'clock,  and  then  we  were  intro- 
duced to  Mrs.  Vollar,  and  found  that  w^e  had 
many  friends  and  interests  in  common. 

Sketching  in  the  tropics  I  found  no  easy  matter 
on  account  of  vegetation  which  clothes  the  whole 
face  of  the  world  in  the  richest  greens.  Nothing- 
is  more  beautiful  to  the  eye  than  this  verdure,  but 
it  is  hard  to  paint,  and  moreover  it  was  all  new  to 
me.  I  attempted  a  sketch,  but  with  indifferent 
success,  of  the  jungle-clothed  mountains  around 
Pallekelly,  culminating  in  a  dark  peak  about 
which  the  clouds  were  beginning  to  gather.  One 
feature  of  the  scene  which  added  interest,  though 
it  enhanced  my  difficulties,  was  the  extraordinary 
variety  of  vegetation.     Every  tree  seemed  to  have 


THE  MOUNTAINS  FROM 
PALLE  KELLY 

"  Sketching  in  the  tropics  I  found  no  easy  matter  on 
account  of  vegetation,  which  clothes  the  whole  face  of 
the  world  in  the  richest  greens.  Nothing  is  more 
beautiful  to  the  eye  than  this  verdure,  but  it  is  hard  to 
paint,  and  moreover  it  was  all  new  to  me.  I  attempted 
a  sketch,  but  with  indifferent  success,  of  the  jungle- 
clothed  mountains  around  Pallekelly,  culminating  in  a 
dark  peak,  about  which  the  clouds  were  beginning  to 
gather. 


Plate  42 


THE    TEMPLE    FLOWER  399 

a  neighbour  of  a  different  species,  most  of  them 
festooned  with  creepers  and  parasites;  and  above 
them,  at  intervals,  projected  the  feathery  heads  of 
a  dozen  different  kinds  of  palm,  and  beneath  were 
broad-leaved  bananas  and  a  dense  undergrowth 
with  ferns  and  spiky  grass  appearing  wherever  the 
tangle  would  permit. 

On  our  return  drive  our  syce  picked  us  all  kinds 
of  flowers — scarlet  and  crimson  hibiscus,  the 
temple  flower,  or  champac  [Michilia  chainpacd), 
which  belongs  to  the  Magnolia  order,  and  is  like 
a  magnified  orange-blossom  with  a  yellow  centre. 
It  smells  delicious,  and  is  much  used  in  the  Bud- 
dhist temples.  Amongst  other  common  plants 
which  grow  in  the  hedgerows  are  the  sensitive 
plant,  and  a  little  orange  and  pink  flower,  like  a 
bramble,  which  smells  like  black  currants.  This  is 
the  Lajitarna,  one  of  the  greatest  pests  the  planter 
of  Ceylon  has  to  contend  against.  It  was,  I  believe, 
originally  imported  from  America,  and,  like  many 
other  things  not  indigenous,  it  grows  with  such 
vigour  and  strength  that,  in  places,  it  has  prac- 
tically taken  possession  of  the  land  and  is  very 
hard  to  exterminate. 

We  had  rain  and  thunder  daily,  and  every  day 
they  came  on  at  an  hour  earlier  than  the  previous 
day.  It  was  the  time  of  the  little  monsoon,  and 
the  weather  might  clear  at  any  moment,  then  it 
would  be  very  fine  for  two  or  three  weeks,  until 
the  great  south-west  monsoon  broke. 

Two  days  later  wewent  to  stay  with  the  Governor 
at  the  Pavilion,  where  we  were  a  party  of  five,  our 


400 


CEYLON 


kind  host,  Captain  Christopher,  the  A.D.C.,  and 
Mr.  Liddell,  Sir  Arthur's  secretary  and  ourselves. 
The  Pavilion  is  a  large  white  classical  building 
with  deep  verandahs,  long  wide  corridors  and  big 
rooms  with  windows  in  every  possible  place.  It  is 
merely  a  wing  of  the  house  originally  planned, 
and  the  hall  is  used  as  a  dining-room,  a  great 
room  with  twelve  doorways  into 
verandahs  and  corridors,  always 
kept  open  to  court  the  air.   The 
"  peons  "  or  government  messen- 
gers, and  servants,  whose  livery 
consists  of  white  linen  coats  with 
red,  gold,  and  black  lace,  a  linen 
cloth  round  their  waists  and  down 
to  the  feet,  which  are  bare,  and 
the    usual    tortoiseshell     combs, 
waited    at   dinner,    as  well   as  a 
magnificent  black  man  with  a  red 
turban  and  a  twisted  ivory  boar's 
tusk  hanging  on  his  breast.    He 
was  his  Excellency's  Fijian  valet, 
a    tremendous   hero   among    the 
ladies'  maids  at  home,  and  said 
to  be  a  great  hand  at  traveller's  tales.  When  he 
was  in  Europe  he  went  with  his  master  to  Den- 
mark,  and  there,   before  an   august   assemblage 
including  many  crowned  heads,  was  called  upon  to 
show  how  to  "  make  fire  "  according  to  the  Fijian 
method.    On  returning  to  his  native  land  he  told 
many  tales  too  good  to  be  true,  but  the  only  one 
he  could  not  get  his  compatriots  to  believe  was 


THE    PAVILION    GARDEN  401 

the  veracious  account  of  his  making  fire  before  the 
Kings  and  Emperors  of  Europe. 

We  made  acquaintance  with  some  excellent  fruit 
which  I  had  never  seen  before,  including  guavas 
and  the  mangosteen.  This  is  a  dark  purple  fruit, 
the  size  of  an  orange,  with  light  green  excres- 
cences at  the  point  where  the  fruit  joins  the  stalk. 
The  part  eaten  is  the  centre,  which  is  snow-white, 
and  in  form  like  six  or  seven  pips  of  an  orange, 
embedded  in  a  soft  rose-coloured  substance  about 
a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick,  which  intervenes  between 
the  white  centre  and  the  rind. 

The  great  charm  of  the  Pavilion  lies  in  the  gar- 
den, full  of  cinnamons  and  nutmegs,  with  gardenias 
growing  like  roses,and  choice  and  curious  trees  and 
shrubs  about  delightful  green  lawns.  It  is  difficult 
to  remember  all  their  names,  but  amongst  others 
Sir  Arthur  pointed  out  the  tallow-candle  tree, which 
has  a  little  white  lily-shaped  flower  springing 
straight  out  of  the  stem,  and  fruit  which  bears  a 
most  extraordinary  resemblance  to  that  homely 
household  necessary ;  a  fine  specimen  of  the  fan- 
shaped  traveller's  palm,  with  its  great  flat  leaves, 
at  the  base  of  which  the  thirsty  traveller  may  find  a 
reservoir  of  water  ;  and  a  huge  cotton-tree,  with  its 
straight  wide-spreading  branches ;  it  is  a  deciduous 
tree,  and  was  then  without  leaves, but  had  a  sprink- 
ling of  large  crimson  flowers.  Beneath  it  were 
tethered  two  beautiful  little  deer  and  a  fawn,  which 
Sir  Arthur  fed  with  plantains.  They  were  quite 
tame,  and  ate  the  fruit  out  of  his  hand. 

The  Secretaries  lived  in  a  bungalow  in  the  gar- 

3E 


402  CEYLON 

den,  and  they  told  us  that  when  they  walked  home 
at  night  they  carried  lanterns,  in  order  to  see  and 
avoid  the  snakes,  of  which  there  are  many,  includ- 
ing two  poisonous  kinds,  the  cobra  and  the  tic- 
plonga,a  name  applied  to  several  species  ofviperine 
snakes,  one  of  them  being  of  a  brilliant  emerald- 
green  colour. 

One  morning  at  6.30,  before  the  sun  had  quite 
penetrated  through  the  thick  mists,  we  found  our- 
selves, a  party  of  four,  in  the  four-seated  victoria, 
bowling  along  the  Peradeniya  road.  Theplan  was  to 
drive  about  seven  miles,  there  to  meet  riding 
horses,  visit  three  temples  among  the  hills,  meet 
the  carriage  again  in  another  valley,  and  drive 
home.  It  was  a  delightful  expedition,  and  gave  us 
an  insight  into  the  byways  of  Ceylon,  which,  but 
for  Sir  Arthur,  we  should  never  have  had.  The 
weather  was  brilliant  and  hot  until  we  rejoined  the 
carriage  at  2.30,  and  then  a  deluge  of  rain  burst 
upon  us,  and  it  was  all  that  we  could  do  to  keep 
dry.  At  the  place  where  we  took  to  the  saddle  we 
came  across  two  elephants,  the  first  we  had  seen  in 
Ceylon,  engaged  in  some  agricultural  work. 

My  companion  was  mounted  on  Sir  Arthur's 
favourite  pony,  Janet,  which  has  won  many  races  in 
the  island  in  her  day,  and  was  a  pretty  little  beast. 
I  rode  with  Sir  Arthur,  followed  by  his  two  syces,, 
on  foot,  as  their  custom  is.  They  wear  white  tunics 
and  short  trousers  to  the  knee,  below  is  bare  leg 
and  shoeless  foot.  The  Governor  being  in  mourn- 
ing they  wore  black  turbans  and  cummerbunds. 
One  of  them  carried  a  plume  of  horse-hair  to  whisk 


GALANGOLLA 


403 


away  the  importunate  fly  from  his  Excellency's 
horse.  We  had  a  most  varied  ride  up  hill  and  down 
dale,  skirting  paddy-fields  with  dun-coloured 
buffaloes  wallowing  in  the  wet  mud,  through 
dense  jungle,  a  tangle  of  palms,  bananas,jack-fruit 
trees,  bamboos,  creepers,  in  shade  and  sunlight, 
past  hamlets  and  scattered  cottages,  with  half-nude 
people  standing  to  stare  at  or  to  salaam  to  the 
Governor. 

Here  and  there  we  got  fine  views  of  abrupt  and 
peaked  hills,  blue  in  the  distance,  and  densely 
clothed  with  forest,  except  where  tea-planters  had 
scarified  and  disfigured  the  hill  sides ; 
here  and  there  the  red  rocky  soil 
showed  through. 

About  three  miles  brought  us  to 
the  first  Buddhist  temple  of  Galan- 
golla,  a  comparatively  modern  build- 
ing, but  in  a  very  remarkable  position, 
under  the  shadow  of  a  huge  boulder 
rock.  As  we  approached,  we  were  met 
by  an  important  native,  the  head  of  a 
district,  who  showed  us  over  the 
temple.  We  had  heard  that  he  would 
appear  in  native  dress  with  a  quaint 
hat  like  that  of  the  great  Panjandrum 
covered  with  gold  lace,  but  he  apparently  preferred 
European  costume,  and,  instead  of  being  a  thing  of 
beauty,  he  looked — with  the  white  cloth  round  his 
legs  and  a  black  coat — like  a  grocer's  assistant. 

The  exterior  of  this  temple  is  built  in  a  mongrel 
Italian  style,  and  is  whitewashed.  We  entered  to 


ONE   OF   THE   CROWD 


404  CEYLON 

find  ourselves  in  a  dark  vaulted  chamber,  opening 
into  a  long  slip  of  a  room,  containing  a  colossal  re- 
cumbent figure  of  Buddha,  very  gaudily  painted. 
It  must  have  been  twenty-five  feet  in  length.  At  the 
head  and  the  feet  were  large  upright  figures,  and 
all  over  the  walls  paintings  of  Buddhas  and  saints, 
drawn  in  a  very  archaic  style,  and  gaudy  in  colour. 
In  the  first  chamber,  also  frescoed,  is  kept  a  silver 
tabernacle,  in  which  is  deposited  the  sacred  relic. 
On  high  days  it  is  carried  forth  upon  the  back  of  an 
elephant.  The  chief  figure  and  shrine  of  Buddha 
was,  however,  upstairs,  amongst  a  crowd  of  yellow- 
robed  priests  and  natives.  The  bell-shaped  dagoba 
in  the  centre  of  the  chamber  is  the  permanent 
abode  of  the  relic,  and  is  hung  with  jewelled  offer- 
ings, and  surrounded  by  smaller  gilt  replicas  of  it- 
self of  all  sizes.  Around  the  room,  like  Egyptian 
mummies,  are  arranged  stiff  painted  figures  of 
saints,  moulded  in  plaster,  and  larger  than  life. 
Amongst  them,  but  much  smaller,  is  the  figure  of 
the  still  living  founder  of  the  temple.  We  tried  to 
get  some  explanation  from  the  priests  as  to  the 
meaning  of  certain  frescoes  illustrating  the  life  of 
Buddha,  but  they  could  not  agree  upon  any  consis- 
tent account.  I  found  on  inquiry  that  Dagoba — a 
word  the  meaning  of  which  mystified  me  consider- 
ably— is  really  synonymous  with  the  Pagoda, 
familiar  from  childish  days  as  representing  all  the 
magic  of  the  East.  Both  words  are  corruptions  of 
the  Pali  word  Dagaba.  Originally  a  Dagoba  was  a 
casket  made  to  contain  some  relic  of  the  Buddha  or 
some  specially  venerated  follower.  These  caskets 


DAGOBAS 


405 


were  placed  inside  a  Chaitya  or  Stupa,  a  structure 
of  a  conical  shape  tapering  upwards,  built  either 
inside  an  assembly  hall  or  in  the  open.  Eventually, 


A   DAGOBA   AT   KANDY 


the  Dagoba  or  Pagoda  came  to  mean  the  whole 
monument  as  well  as  the  relic  casket  inside  it,  and 
it  was  used  as  a  temple  or  place  of  worship.  There 
are  Dagobas  of  every  size,  two  of  the  largest  being 


4o6  CEYLON 

the  enormous  Rangoon  Pagoda,  and  the  Dagoba  at 
Anuradhapura,  in  Ceylon.  The  original  Dagobas 
were  generally  bell- shaped,  and  the  usual  form  in 
Ceylon  is  of  that  shape  still ;  but  as  time  passed 
the  shape  sometimes  became  modified,  and  they 
were  made  more  and  more  elaborate :  the  later  ones 
are  often  raised  upon  a  base  of  one  or  more  tiers  of 
masonry,  and  are  much  decorated — generally  with 
images  of  the  Buddha — and  ending  in  tapering 
finials  of  umbrella-shaped  ornament. 

Having  seen  the  temple,  the  Governor  took 
some  photographs,  and  I  made  a  sketch.  The  rest  of 
the  party  seemed  to  get  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction 
out  of  the  milk  from  some  green  cocoa-nuts,  called 
in  this  state  corumbas.  We  then  rode  on  to  the 
temple  of  Gadaladenya,  passing  on  the  way  another 
ruder  temple,  covered  outside  with  rough  life-sized 
representations  of  elephants. 

When  riding  through  a  clearing  in  the  forest  I 
noticed  a  brilliant  green  bush  with  gorgeous 
crimson  flowers  upon  it ;  and  when  I  came  quite 
close  I  saw  upon  its  branches  a  very  beautiful 
chameleon,  blinking  in  the  sun.  It  had  a  brilliant 
green  body  and  a  crimson  head,  exactly  matching 
the  bush.  There  appear  to  be  quantitiesof  leechesin 
these  parts,  and  several  of  our  horses  which  had  been 
standing  in  swampy  ground  were  bitten  by  them. 

Gadaladenya,  quite  the  most  picturesque  of  the 
three  temples  we  saw,  is  built  upon  the  smooth 
surface  of  a  rock  overlooking  a  valley  and  backed 
by  jungle.  A  huge  Dagoba  of  stone  protected  by  a 
tiled  roof  stands  a  little  in  front  of  it.  The  temple  is 


GADALADENYA  407 

partly  of  very  picturesque  red  brick,  and  elephants 
of  the  size  of  ponies  project  from  the  wall,  cut  in  the 
brick,  and  helped  out  with  plaster.  The  pillars  and 
other  details  about  the  entrance  to  the  temple  are 
also  ornamented  with  sculpture,  and  within  is  a 
colossal  seated  figure  of  Buddha,  in  the  conven- 


A    SINHALESE   TEMPLE,   GADALADENYA 


tional  attitude  of  meditation,  surrounded  by  offer- 
ings. Buddha  is  usually  represented  in  one  of  three 
seated  attitudes,  either  with  his  hands  crossed  in 
front  of  him  in  contemplation,  orwith  his  right  hand 
raised  signifying  teaching,  or  with  the  same  hand 
pointing  downwards  in  the  act  of  renouncing  the 
world :  his  right  arm  and  shoulder  are  always  bare, 
and  his  robes  are  draped  from  his  left  shoulder  over 
his  left  side.  It  was  getting  very  hot,  so,  after  pho- 
tographing and  sketching,  we  hurried  on  through 
the  jungle  to  Lanka  Telika,a  temple  finely  situated 
high  above  the  valley,  and  approached  through 


4o8  CEYLON 

groves  of  cocoa-nut  palms  by  flights  of  rude  steps 
partly  cut  in  the  rock  itself.  More  elaborate 
refreshments  were  here  provided  for  us  by  the 
Rhatamahatmer,  or  head  of  the  district,  and  as  we 
had  had  our  early  tea  at  six  and  it  was  now  past 
noon,  we  were  very  thankful  for  his  milk,  oranges, 
and  biscuits.  We  sat  in  a  little  shed  in  front  of  the 
temple,  with  a  grand  view  over  forest  and  blue 


(Teachmg) 


(  Contentplat'mg) 


(Renouncing  the  World) 


THE  THREE    USUAL  ASPECTS   OF  THE   SEATED  BUDDHA 

hills ;  but  the  clouds  were  already  rolling  up  and 
warned  us  to  hasten  on  our  way. 

We  had  about  five  miles  to  ride  to  the  carriage, 
along  a  winding  and  picturesque  road  with  ever- 
changing  views,  but  the  quickly  gathering  clouds 
overhead  distracted  our  attention,  and  before  long 
the  rain  was  upon  us. 

Though  it  was  somewhat  damping  to  our  sight- 
seeing ardour,  it  was  very  beautiful,  especially  from 
a  height,  to  watch  the  great  rain-clouds  blowing  up 
from  the  sea  every  afternoon  and  culminating  in  a 
deluge  of  rain.  The  clear  blue  sky  of  the  morning 
gradually  becomes  flecked  with  white  woolly 
clouds,  and  shadows  travel  rapidly  over  the  sunny 


A  TROPICAL  SHOWER 

"  It  was  very  beautiful,  especially  from  a  height,  to 
watch  the  great  rain-clouds  blowing  up  from  the  sea 
every  afternoon  and  culminating  in  a  deluge  of  rain- 
The  clear  blue  sky  of  the  morning  gradually  becomes 
flecked  with  white  woolly  clouds,  and  shadows  travel 
rapidly  over  the  sunny  green  landscape.  On  they  come 
thicker  and  thicker,  the  white  turns  to  grey,  the  blue 
sky  rapidly  disappears  and  the  grey  gives  place  to  black, 
casting  the  whole  landscape  into  a  deep  blue  gloom ; 
then  a  nebulous  mass,  more  dense  than  its  predecessors, 
charged  with  electricity,  sweeps  over  the  high  moun- 
tains ;  there  is  a  vivid  flash  of  forked  fire  and  an 
almost  simultaneous  roar  of  thunder,  and  a  deluge  of 
water  falls  in  a  great  grey  veil  over  hill  and  vale,  and 
swirling  onwards  warns  us  that  no  time  must  be  lost 
in  seeking  shelter  if  we  wish  to  preserve  a  dry  thread 
to  our  backs." 


THE    LITTLE    MONSOON  409 

green  landscape.  On  they  come  thicker  and  thicker, 
the  white  turns  to  grey,  the  blue  sky  rapidly  dis- 
appears, and  the  grey  gives  place  to  black,  casting 
the  whole  landscape  into  a  deep  blue  gloom,  then 
a  nebulous  mass,  more  dense  than  its  predecessors, 
charged  with  electricity,  sweeps  over  the  high 
mountains,  there  is  a  vivid  flash  of  forked  fire  and 
an  almost  simultaneous  roar  of  thunder,  and  a 
deluge  of  water  falls  in  a  great  grey  veil  over  hill 
and  vale,  and  swirling  onwards  warns  us  that  no 
time  must  be  lost  in  seeking  shelter  if  we  wish  to 
preserve  a  dry  thread  to  our  backs. 

We  reached  the  little  hamlet  where  the  carriage 
was  waiting,  and  were  conducted  by  the  head  man 
of  the  village  to  his  house,  where  the  luncheon 
basket  had  already  found  its  way.  The  verandah 
was  hung  with  white  sheets,  and  all  the  chairs  were 
covered  with  white  cloth  of  different  kinds.  This 
is  a  great  mark  of  honour  to  a  distinguished 
person.  The  old  gentleman — our  host — was  a 
quaint  figure ;  he  had  a  good  deal  of  grey  hair 
about  him,  and  was  clothed  about  the  middle  with 
one  garment.  On  his  head  he  wore  a  small  cap, 
which  from  his  constant  and  abject  salaaming  was 
generally  about  the  level  of  his  waist. 

I  used  to  go  out  when  at  the  Pavilion  at  6  a.m., 
and  I  have  seldom  done  any  sketching  in  more 
pleasant  circumstances.  My  friends  at  the  Secre- 
tary's bungalow  would  find  me  out  at  some  temple 
gateway  or  by  the  lake  side,  and  send  a  dignified 
peon  with  a  kind  message  or  some  refreshment, 
when  they  thought  I  should  be  weary,  or  a  choice 

3F 


4IO 


CEYLON 


cigar   in  an  envelope   with  "  On  Her   Majesty's 
Service  "  stamped  upon  it. 

Close  to  the  Pavilion  is  the  ancient  Palace  of 
the  Kings  of  Kandy,  which  the  Governor  took  us 
to  see.  Originally  it  was  a  massive  building  with 
thick  walls  and  ornamented  with  sculptured 
figures  of  the  sun,  the  moon  and  elephants  ;  but 


A   SHOP   IN    KANDY 


what  remains  of  the  structure  has  been  patched  up, 
and  with  the  addition  of  a  deep  verandah  covered 
with  creepers  serves  as  the  Government  Agent's 
house.  Beyond  it,  we  came  to  the  Court  House,  a 
building  open  on  all  sides  to  the  air,  of  dark  brown 
wood  with  a  deep  tiled  roof,  supported  by  pillars 
and  beams,  most  beautifully  and  elaborately  carved 
with  intricate  patterns,  the  corbels  terminating  in 
representations  of  the  lotus.  The  pillars  are  cut  in 
sections,  rectangular  and  octagonal  sided.   Here  in 


THE    MAHAWELLI   GANGHA        411 

this  beautiful  hall  our  friend  Judge  Lawrie  held 
his  court,  and  there  I  found  him,  somewhat  late  in 
the  day,  at  work.  We  then  paid  a  visit  to  the 
Temple  of  the  Tooth,  and  Sir  Arthur  took  us  into 
the  library  attached  to  it,  which  contains  many 
native  books  with  elaborate  silver  bindings,  or  with 
lacquer  covers.  The  books  are  written  on  palm- 
leaves  cut  into  strips,  about  t8  inches  to  2  feet 
long  by  2^  inches  broad,  and  the  leaves  are  strung 
together  by  a  cord.  From  the  balcony  around  the 
library  we  looked  down  upon  the  tank  and  watched 
the  tortoises  swimming  about. 

This  afternoon  for  the  first  time  it  cleared  up,  and 
at  4.30  we  took  a  charming  drive  by  the  terraced 
road  which  winds  through  the  forest-covered  hill 
at  the  back  of  the  Pavilion,  and  along  Lady 
Gordon's  and  Lady  Horton'sdrives.  The  views  over 
the  valley  of  the  Mahawelli  Gangha  river  eastwards 
towards  the  blue  mountains  were  exquisite,  and 
the  colouring  seemed  to  me  far  more  intense  than 
that  of  any  other  landscape  that  I  had  ever  seen. 

Before  leaving  for  Colombo  we  paid  a  visit  to 
Judge  Lawrie  at  Peradeniya,  our  baggage  going 
before  in  a  bullock  cart.  His  house  was  an  old- 
fashioned  one-storeyed  bungalow,  consisting  of  a 
row  of  rooms  with  deep  verandahs  on  either  side, 
and  surrounded  by  a  good  garden  and  lawns  dotted 
over  with  the  usual  mango  and  jack-trees.  It  looks 
eastward,  over  cocoa-nut  groves  and  tea  plantations, 
towards  the  steep  wooded  hills,  which  begin  to  rise 
close  by.  To  the  south  there  is  a  pretty  distant  view. 

After  a  very  hot  night,  and  a  strenuous  encounter 


412  CEYLON 

with  mosquitoes,  our  host  took  us  before  breakfast 
next  morning,  to  inspect  a  neighbouring  tea  factory. 
It  is  interesting  to  see  both  the  plant  itself  growing 
and  the  process  by  which  it  is  prepared  for  the 
market.  The  first  three  leaves  of  each  shoot  are 
picked,  then  dried  on  trays  of  jute,  where  they  partly 
ferment,  then  rolled  in  a  semi-hot  condition  by  a 
huge  rotary  roller;  after  this  they  are  shaken  about 
and  dried  in  a  hot  close  machine,  and  finally  passed 
over  a  sieve  containing  holes  of  three  sizes.  The 
small  leaf  at  the  top  of  the  shoot,  the  second,  and 
the  third  and  largest  leaf,  are  by  this  process  sorted 
and  separated.  The  small  leaves  form  the  finest, 
and  the  large  the  coarsest  tea. 

Whilst  I  was  at  the  bungalow  I  found  that  a 
little  swallow  {Hirundo  javanicd)  with  a  red  breast 
had  built  a  nest  on  the  ceiling  of  my  room,  and  he 
came  flying  in  and  out  through  the  ventilator  above 
the  window.  Some  of  the  bees  of  Ceylon  are  black 
and  as  large  as  stagbeetles,  and  there  are  no  end 
of  Palm  squirrels  {Sciurus palmarujn)  in  the  trees, 
tiny  little  mouse-coloured  fellows  with  dark  stripes 
down  their  backs.  There  were  dozens  of  them  in 
the  trees  by  our  window  at  the  Pavilion,  and  they 
used  to  chase  one  another  up  and  dov/n  the 
branches  like  boys  let  loose  from  school. 

When  we  were  shown  some  photographs,  in 
opening  the  frame  of  one  of  them,  we  discovered 
within,  between  the  doors  and  the  glass,  a  little 
wasp's  nest  made  of  hard  red  clay.  On  taking  it  off 
we  found  the  grub  and  six  or  seven  spiders  laid  up 
in  store  for  its  provision.  It  was  in  the  act  of  con- 


MORNING  MISTS  IN  THE  VALLEY 
OF  THE  MAHAWELLI  GANGHA 

"  A  TERRACE  road  winds  through  the  forest-covered 
hill  at  the  back  of  the  Pavilion,  and  from  it  exquisite 
views  open  on  to  the  valley  below  and  away  to  the 
distant  blue  mountains.  The  colouring  of  the  land- 
scape in  Ceylon  seemed  to  me  far  more  intense  than 
that  in  any  other  country  I  had  seen." 


MR.    CAMERON  413 

suming  one  when  we  discovered  it.  By  the  time  the 
larder  is  exhausted  the  wasp  is  fledged  and  ready  to 
make  his  appearance  in  the  world.  The  nest  was 
about  one  and  a  half  inch  square. 

We  packed  up  our  traps  at  noon  on  the  following 
day,  and,  with  a  coolie  to  each  box,  marched  to  the 
Peradeniya  Station,  two  hundred  yards  off,  to  catch 
the  train. 

We  had  some  very  severe  showers  on  our  way 
down  to  Colombo  in  the  plain,  passing  once  more 
all  the  glorious  views  which  the  line  affords — the 
dense  jungle,  the  new  green  paddy-fields,  the  bright 
croton-planted  stations,  and  the  red  water-lilies  in 
the  ponds.  At  the  last  station  before  reaching 
Colombo  we  were  met  by  Mr.  Hardinge  Cameron, 
at  that  time  Mayor  of  Colombo,  the  son  of  Mrs. 
Cameron,  whose  beautiful  photographs  are  so 
well  known.  He  kindly  drove  us  into  the  town 
through  extensive  cinnamon  groves  or  plantations, 
now  left  very  much  to  look  after  themselves,  and 
out  beyond  the  town  boundary,  through  a  bit  of 
jungle,  past  some  native  villages  or  hamlets.  We 
bowled  along  smooth  red  roads,  between  groves  of 
lovely  trees,  and  avenues  of  palms.  Flowering 
shrubs  and  bright-leaved  plants  covered  and  sur- 
rounded the  bungalows,  each  snugly  situated  in  its 
own  compound. 

We  spent  a  day  or  two  at  the  hotel  during  Sir 
Arthur's  absence  at  Ratnapura,  having  unfortu- 
nately been  obliged  to  give  up  going  there  with 
him.  We  had  some  lovely  evening  drives  with  Mr. 
Cameron  and  his  friend  Mr.  Williams,  and  dined 


414  CEYLON 

with  him  in  his  charming  bungalow  close  to  one 
of  the  many  lakes. 

One  day  he  took  me  to  see  the  market,which  sur- 
rounds the  town-hall.  It  is  rich  in  sketchable  bits 
for  an  artist,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  chief  build- 
ings are  made  of  cast  iron.  The  subtle  litheness  of 
the  figures  and  the  profusion  and  gorgeous  colours 
of  the  fruits  are  most  attractive.  There  I  set  to 
work  to  make  a  sketch,  watched  over  by  a  mayoral 
peon  in  white  linen,  with  a  green  ribbon  and  silver 
badge  across  his  shoulder.  In  spite  of  torrents  of 
rain  I  had  some  golf  on  the  links  by  the  sea,  but 
found  that  the  climate  or  the  borrowed  clubs  did 
not  suit  my  play. 

On  Sir  Arthur's  return  we  migrated  to  the  cool 
lofty  corridors  and  halls  of  Government  House.  It 
is  a  large  building,  and  to  find  our  rooms  we  had 
to  walk  what  seemed  an  interminable  distance  from 
the  hall,  along  a  verandah,  with  the  rain  pouring 
down  in  torrents  outside,  to  a  distant  wing  of  the 
house.  But  the  rooms,  when  we  got  to  them,  were 
delightfully  big  and  airy. 

The  Governor  was,  as  always,  most  kind,  and 
told  us  all  about  his  visit  to  Ratnapura.  We 
listened,  not  without  many  a  regret,  to  his  account 
of  the  fine  native  dresses  and  other  splendours  of 
the  Durbar  which  we  had  missed. 

When  we  went  to  smoke  his  Excellency  gave 
me  a  volume  (1855-6)  of  his  father's*  corres- 
pondence to  look  at.  He  was  editing  the  letters, 
and  seemed  engrossed   in  the  subject.    I  found 

*  The  fourth  Earl  of  Aberdeen. 


vCtchable  bits 


THE  MARKET,  COLOMBO 

"The  subtle  litheness  of  the  figures,  the  profusion 
and  gorgeous  colours  of  the  fruit  and  vegetables,  the 
deep  shadows  and  flickering  lights  combine  to  make 
the  market  a  most  attractive  place  for  an  artist.?  > ; '     ■,  >  ^< , ; 

louse.  It 

Plaie  43 

i^jfi;;,    ,'\;:,!;    MK.   •am    puuttiK- 

■de,  to  a  distant  wing  of  th'.. 
•>,  when  wc  gut  to  t^"  -'^    "  -'■ 
airy. 


p.^%  V 

■ 

51 
1- 

'^'^    ^'^^- 

^  jft 

:      f 

m 

1 

1 

y 

^-'-^..-i^'..' '     ^bm 

QUEEN'S    HOUSE  415 

much  that  was  most  interesting  in  the  book,  espe- 
cially about  the  time  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  resigna- 
tion. The  letter  he  received  from  the  Queen  on  that 
occasion  is  quite  touching.  Many  of  the  links  be- 
tween the  letters  are  filled  up  by  extracts  from 
Sir  Arthur's  own  most  interesting  and  beautifully 
written  journal.  It  containsan  excellent  description 
of  his  journey  with  Gladstone  to  the  Ionian  Islands 
and  Greece — when  Gladstone  distinguished  him- 
self by  making  an  admirable  speech  in  Italian. 

Queen's  House  is  aratherdull  building, standing 
in  the  middle  of  the  town.  Its  redeeming  feature  is 
the  garden,  and  on  our  last  day  I  made  a  sketch  of 
the  giant  banyan  tree  in  it,  and  of  the  tame  pelican 
and  the  crane  who  patrol  the  bright  lawn  of  the 
Queen's  House  and  are  most  amusing  in  their  odd 
ways,  as  are  also  the  numerous  crows  with  dark 
grey  necks  (Corvus  splendens)  which  swarm  about 
Colombo.  They  are  daring  thieves,  and  one  flew 
into  the  dining-room  before  we  had  left  it,  and 
tried  to  fly  away  with  something,  while  Bangle, 
his  Excellency's  black  dachshund,  was  being  fed. 
Bangle  went  everywhere  with  the  Governor, 
whether  riding,  driving,  walking,  or  working.  He 
sits  outside  the  chapel  waiting  for  him,  and  plants 
himself  upon  the  desk,  or  walks  about  amongst 
the  papers  on  his  writing  table. 

In  the  afternoon  Sir  Arthur  drove  us  to  the 
reservoir.  It  is  east  of  the  town,  upon  rising 
ground,  and  commands  a  splendid  view  to  the 
mountains  eastwards,  and  westwards  over  the  town 
to  the  sea.  The  curious  feature  in  this  view  is  that 


4i6  CEYLON 

although  it  overlooks  a  city  of  120,000  inhabitants 
there  is  not  a  house  to  be  seen — no  sign  of  dwell- 
ing or  of  human  life  except  a  church  spire,  a  dome, 
and  two  or  three  tall  chimneys.  Everything  is 
hidden  awayamongst  the  umbrella-like  palm-trees. 
We  dined  early,  and  had  to  bustle  off  imme- 
diately after  to  the  harbour,  carrying  with  us  a 
magnificent  orchid  {Dendrobium  macarthii)  which 
Sir  Arthur  had  cut  on  his  journey  from  Ratna- 
pura,  in  the  jungle,  on  purpose  for  us.  It  is  a 
splendid  mauve  flower,  growing  in  clusters  on  a 
long  stem.  He  had  to  cut  off  a  piece  of  the  branch 
of  the  tree  in  order  to  get  it.  Captain  Christopher 
accompanied  us  on  board  our  steamer  in  the 
Government  barge,  rowed  by  eight  swarthy  natives. 
We  were  not  much  too  soon.  We  found  Mr. 
Cameron  and  Mr.  Williams  there,  and  we  were 
glad  to  have  an  opportunity  to  say  good-bye  and 
thank  them  for  their  kindness.  Then  we  had  to 
bid  farewell  to  Christopher  and  to  lovely  Ceylon 
with  all  its  delights  ;  and  so,  pitching,  we  got  out 
of  harbour. 


IN    COLOMBO   HARBOUR 


THE  QUEEN'S  HOUSE,  COLOMBO 

"In  the  shady  garden  of  Government  House  are  many 
fine  trees,  the  most  conspicuous  being  a  giant  Banyan. 
Surrounding  it  are  beautiful  green  lawns  dotted  over 
with  flowering  shrubs  and  bright  yellow  and  red 
Croton  bushes.  Two  tame  pelicans  and  a  crane  patrol 
the  green  sward,  and,  in  their  odd  ways,  are  a  constant 
source  of  amusement." 


CHAPTER   XXI 
CEYLON 

Eight  months  later  I  awoke  one  December  morn- 
ing to  find  myself  once  more  off  the  coast  of  Ceylon, 
and  going  on  deck  saw  the  sun  rise  gloriously  be- 
hind Adam's  Peak,  which  stood  up  amongst  the 
surrounding  mountains  clear  against  the  Eastern 
sky. 

By  7  o'clock  we  were  in  Colombo  harbour,  and 
Captain  Pirie,  Sir  Arthur  Havelock's  A.D.C.,  had 
come  on  board  with  a  kind  note  of  welcome  from 
Lady  Havelock.  We  left  the  ship  in  the  Governor's 
familiar  boat,  with  its  eight  swarthy  rowers,  and 
made  our  way  to  the  shore. 

Our  host  and  hostess  had  gone  to  the  Pavilion 
for  Christmas,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  we 
started  for  Kandy  to  join  them. 

The  heat, which  had  been  oppressive  in  Colombo, 


4i8  CEYLON 

gave  place  to  delicious  coolness  as  we  ascended  to 
the  higher  altitude. 

The  party  at  the  Pavilion  consisted,  besides  the 
family  and  ourselves,  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Herbert 
Oakley;  Captain  Pirie,  the  A.D.C.,  and  the  Secre- 
tary, Mr.  Gerald  Brown:  with  them,  in  a  tempera- 
ture of  80°,  we  spent  a  very  pleasant  Christmas- 
tide,  taking  part  in  all  the  time-honoured  customs 
that  are  associated  at  home  with  bare  trees  and 
frostbound  earth,  under  a  canopy  of  blue  and  sur- 
rounded by  that  wealth  of  vegetation  which  only  the 
tropics  can  give.  Lady  Havelock's  mongoose 
formed  a  not  unimportant  member  of  the  party. 
This  funny  little  beast  was  a  great  pet,  crying  to  be 
let  out  of  its  cage,  and  then  rushing  about,  playing 
with  the  dogs,  with  whom  it  was  quite  able  to  hold 
its  own.  Now  and  then  it  used  to  get  on  to  the  lun- 
cheon table  and  steal  a  piece  of  meat  or  a  bunch  of 
grapes  off  some  one's  plate,  and  was  not  the  least 
abashed  by  anything. 

We  spent  many  pleasant  days  at  the  Pavilion, 
partly  amongst  the  surroundings  of  Kandy  with 
which  we  were  familiar,  and  partly  in  long  rides 
and  expeditions  further  afield.  On  one  of  these,  to 
the  neighbourhood  of  Hangerinkette,  I  was  much 
astonished  to  notice  the  marvellous  way  in  which 
our  native  attendants,  on  foot  and  heavily  laden, 
would,  unobserved,  pass  us  on  the  road,  though 
we  were  on  horseback,  and  arrive  at  the  destination 
first. 

On  another  occasion  we  went  to  Dambool  to  see 
the  famous  rock  temples. 


ALU    VIHARA  419 

We  started,  a  large  party,  in  the  Governors 
saloon  for  a  twenty  miles'  run  to  Matale.  Part  of 
the  way  I  rode  on  the  engine  with  Captain  Pirie, 
and  greatly  enjoyed  the  beautiful  country,  dense 
woods  alternating  with  stretches  of  paddy-fields 
in  the  valleys,  with  small  villages  of  mud  huts 
amongst  the  cocoa-nut  groves,  and  bold  mountains 
rising  beyond.  On  arriving  at  Matale  we  found  the 
carriages  and  red  liveries  waiting  for  us,  and  drove 
off  through  the  gay  and  picturesque  little  town, 
thronged  with  natives  in  bright  clothes,  and  two 


READY  TO  START 


miles  beyond,  along  a  well-shaded  and  level  road, 
to  the  Monastery  of  Alu  Vihara.  This  monastery 
consists  of  a  series  of  small  temples,  occupying 
wedge-shaped  cavities  in  a  group  of  gigantic  gneiss 
rocks,  which  at  some  remote  period  must  have 
fallen  from  the  overhanging  mountains  behind 
them.  They  stand  on  a  height  above  the  road,  and 
are  approached  by  a  winding  path,  up  steep  flights 
of  steps  and  over  slopes  of  rock  :  a  few  minutes' 
walk  brought  us  face  to  face  with  them. 

It  is  said  that  in  this  temple  or  temples  scribes 
were  employed  by  a  Sinhalese  king  to  reduce  to 
writing  the  doctrines  of  Buddha.  It  is  certainly 
probable  that  writing  was  unknown  at  the  time  of 
Buddha,  and  many  people  think  that  the  canon 


420  CEYLON 

of  Buddhist  scriptures,  till  then  handed  down 
orally,  was  first  written  down  in  Ceylon  about 
B.C.  85. 

In  one  of  the  rock  chambers  is  a  huge  recumbent 
figure  of  Buddha,  some  40  feet  in  length,  cut  out 
of  the  solid  rock.  The  interior  of  the  temples,  pro- 
fusely decorated,  was  being  thickly  repainted  with 
oil  paint  of  the  brightest  colours.  A  law,  passed  by 
Sir  Arthur  Gordon,  compels  the  priests  to  render 
a  periodical  account  of  the  expenditure  of  their 
funds,  which  are  considerable,  consequently  they 
were  everywhere  actively  wielding  the  paint-brush 
so  as  to  make  as  much  show  as  possible,  and 
carving  new^  effigies  of  Buddha.  At  the  top  of  one 
of  these  great  rocks  there  is  an  artificial  indenta- 
tion, representing  a  huge  footprint  some  three  feet 
long.  This  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  many  footprints 
of  the  founder  of  the  faith  to  be  found  in  Buddhist 
countries;  the  most  celebrated  being  that  upon 
Adam's  Peak.  To  reach  the  indentation  it  is 
necessary  to  climb  up  the  face  of  the  rock  by 
roughly-hewn  steps. 

Soon  we  heard  the  horn  of  the  coach,  a  wag- 
gonette with  two  horses,  which  we  had  engaged 
to  take  us  to  Dambool,  and  we  had  to  hurry  down 
to  catch  it,  whilst  the  rest  of  our  party  returned  to 
Kandy. 

The  road  slopes  almost  imperceptibly  down- 
wards, in  a  northerly  direction,  towards  the 
plain,  and  passes  for  the  most  part  through  thick 
impenetrable  jungle.  We  changed  horses  about 
four  times,  and  at  one  of  the  stopping-places  we 


THE  xMARTALE  HILLS 


1 

^ 

^3m^^^^ 

1 
c 

1 

H 

j 

- 

0 

p 

H^HrT^^^^^^H 

M 

f    ^^'jj^m 

W 

'    1 

imj^^^I^^^^^^^^e 

Jt 

J 

THE    JUNGLE  421 

found  a  clean,  airy  resthouse,  where  we  got  a  cup 
of  tea. 

Some  of  our  horses  had  odd  tricks,  and  the 
natives  had  recourse  to  odder  expedients  for 
getting  them  harnessed  and  under  way.  On  one 
occasion  the  horse  was  hidden  behind  a  bend  in 
the  road  and  the  coach  had  to  be  drawn  100  yards 
along  it,  without  horses,  to  join  him.  With  the 
aid  of  a  leather  loop  twisted  tight  round  his  nose 
by  means  of  a  stick  (a  "  twich  ")  he  was  harnessed 
in  less  than  no  time,  and  as  soon  as  the  pole  was 
brought  along  side  of  him,  the  coach  was  started, 
and  two  or  three  men  running  beside  him  fastened 
the  traces  and  pole-chain  while  hewas  going ;  after  a 
few  plunges,  he  went  all  right  for  the  rest  of  the  way. 

Scattered  about  the  country  on  either  side  of 
the  road  were  curious  dome-shaped  hills  and  rocks 
of  gneiss  like  those  at  Alu  Vihara  and  those  which 
we  had  yet  to  see  at  Dambool :  the  rock  itself  is  of 
a  warm-brown  colour,  full  of  crystals,  and  where 
the  surface  is  exposed  to  the  weather  becomes 
quite  black. 

We  passed  some  fine  big  cotton  trees  on  our  way, 
and  their  splendid  crimson  bell-shaped  flowers, 
which  come  out  before  the  leaves,  like  cherry  or 
peach-blossom,  we  greatly  admired.  I  believe  the 
jungle  through  which  we  passed  contains  trees  of 
many  different  kinds,  including  ebony,  ironwood 
and  satinwood,  but  we  saw  no  others  of  any  size. 
Of  flowers  there  were  not  many  out  just  then  ; 
the  most  conspicuous  was  the  Gloriosa  superba 
or  jungle-flower,  a   climbing   lily  with   a  hand- 


422  CEYLON 

some  red  and  orange  blossom ;  but  we  noticed  a 
great  variety  of  birds,  and  amongst  them  a 
brilliant  bright  green  bee-eater  (inerops  viridis), 
about  the  size  of  a  large  thrush,  and  a  fly-catching 
bird  (probably  Decrurus  ccerulescens)  of  far  more 
modest  appearance — black  with  a  white  waistcoat 


THE   TEMPLE  AT   DAM BOOL 


and  a  long  black  tail.  There  were  also  the  crow- 
pheasant,  a  kind  of  cuckoo,  a  large  dark  bird  about 
the  size  of  a  small  pheasant,  with  bronze  wings,  and 
a  small  pigeon  or  dove,  which  flew  about  in  front 
of  the  coach  and  seemed  very  tame.  Jungle-fowl, 
one  of  the  finest  birds  in  the  islands,  hornbills, 
and  many  other  birds  are  also  to  be  found  there. 

The  sun  was  rapidly  sinking  as  we  approached 
Dambool.    A  path  to  the  left,  just  short  of  the 


DAMBOOL  423 

village,  strikes  upwards  over  the  rounded  surface 
of  one  of  the  gneiss  rocks,  then  winds  amongst 
fallen  boulders  and  bushes  and  up  steep  steps 
towards  another  stretch  of  rock  like  the  first ;  after 
eight  or  ten  minutes'  walk  we  found  ourselves  at 
the  temple  gate.  Here  the  resthouse-keeper  from 
Dambool  overtook  us  with  a  lantern,  for  when  the 
sun  sinks  it  soon  gets  dark,  and  the  way  is  far 
from  easy  to  find. 

This  cave  temple,  from  its  antiquity,  its  size 
and  the  richness  of  its  decoration,  is  the  most  re- 
nowned in  Ceylon  ;  it  is  divided  into  five  chambers 
of  unequal  size,  formed  in  a  natural  wedge-shaped 
cavity  of  the  rock,  and  in  front  of  this  long  cave 
is  a  platform  looking  over  the  plain  and  the  hills 
westward  and  down  the  wooded  slopes  imme- 
diately below.  In  the  large  trees,  including,  of 
course,  a  sacred  Bo-tree  [Ficus  religiosa),  growing 
on  and  about  the  edge  of  this  platform,  there  are 
crowds  of  monkeys  chattering  and  swinging  them- 
selves from  bough  to  bough.  A  richly  sculptured 
doorway  opens  into  the  first  temple,  in  the  least 
deep  part  of  the  cave,  where  there  is  a  colossal 
recumbent  figure  of  Buddha,  about  40  feet  long, 
carved  out  of  the  rock  ;  his  elbow  rests  on  his. 
pillow,  which  is  in  creases,  indicating  the  weight 
which  draws  it  down.  This  is  the  attitude  which 
represents  the  Buddha  as  sinking  into  complete 
Nirvana. 

The  other  temples — entered  from  a  balcony  or 
gallery,  partly  of  rock  and  partly  masonry — are 
larger,    and   crowded   with   figures   of    Buddha,. 


42  + 


CEYLON 


mostly  seated,  and  with  gigantic  figures  of  some 
of  the  Kings  of  Kandy.  The  walls  and  roof  are 
covered  with  oil  paintings  of  angels  standing  on 
clouds,  with  nimbi  round  their  heads,  illustrating 
the  history  of  Buddhism,  the  Landing  of  Wejayo, 
the  Preaching  of  Mahinda  and  the  contest  between 


THE   BALCONY   IN   FRONT  OF  THE   TEMPLE 


Destigaimanu  and  Elate,  in  which  the  combatants 
are  mounted  on  elephants.  The  table  in  front  of 
the  great  Dagoba,  where  the  worshippers  lay  their 
offerings  of  flowers,  was  covered  with  a  cloth, 
much  stained  by  the  surrounding  lamps  and 
candles.  I  was  attracted  by  a  mark  upon  it,  and 
looking  closer  discovered  it  to  be  a  large  cotton 
handkerchief  with  a  printed  portrait  of  Lord 
Dufferin  upon  it. 


SINHALESE    POISONS  425 

By  the  time  we  had  seen  these  temples  and 
a  dripping  well  of  clear  water,  which  falls  from  the 
middle  of  the  ceiling  into  a  small  tank  below,  the 
sun  had  set  in  a  glory  of  gold,  and  the  effect  was 
very  striking  as  we  looked  out  from  the  darkness 
of  the  temple,  through  the  pointed  arch  of  the 
doorway,  the  reflected  light  streaming  in  on  dim 
figures  of  worshippers  and  yellow-robed  priests 
flittmg  about. 

As  it  was  so  dark  it  was  no  good  loitering  any 
longer  in  this  interesting  spot,  so  we  turned  our 
steps  towards  the  village.  With  the  aid  of  the 
lantern  we  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  the  way, 
through  the  one-street  village  of  native  mud 
houses,  thatched  with  palm  leaves  and  nestling 
amongst  trees,  to  the  resthouse  in  the  centre  of  its 
little  lawn-surrounded  compound.  There  we  found 
the  Chief  of  Police,  just  arrived  by  a  long  road 
journey  from  Trinkomalee.  We  dined  together, 
and  he  had  some  odd  stories  to  tell  about  Sinhalese 
prisoners.  The  reduction  of  prisoners'  food  was 
one  of  the  questions  of  the  day  in  Ceylon  :  the 
prisoners  were  said  to  have  been  hitherto  too 
well  fed,  and  the  prisons  consequently  had  become 
fuller  than  ever  before.  The  prison  diet  included 
chillies  and  other  luxuries,  and  the  prison  curries 
were  celebrated  for  their  excellence.  Under  a 
new  system  the  authorities  were,  very  wisely, 
trying  to  make  the  prison  food  a  little  less 
attractive,  and  the  result  was  that  the  prisoners 
had  made  complaints  and  were  petitioning  the 
authorities  for  a  return  to  better  fare.    They  said 

3H 


426  CEYLON 

that  they  came  to  prison  on  the  understanding 
that  they  were  to  have  chillies  and  good  curries, 
and  accused  the  Government  of  breach  of  contract 
in  not  giving  them  what  they  thought  they  had 
the  right  to  expect.  The  women  appear  to  be  less 
attracted  by  the  good  fare  than  the  men,  for  there 
were  in  the  Island  then  only  25  women  prisoners 
as  against  3000  men. 

A  friend  at  Kandy  had  strongly  recommended 
me  not  to  leave  Dambool  without  seeing  the  rock 
fortress  at  Sigiri,  eleven  miles  distant,  so  I  pro- 
ceeded to  make  arrangements,  and  eventually 
found  a  man  with  a  bullock  cart,  the  only  form  of 
conveyance,  who  agreed  to  provide  me  with  a  pair 
of  trotting  bullocks  and  a  light  cart  on  payment  of 
fifteen  rupees  :  he  explained  that  he  could  not  do 
it  for  less,  as  it  was  necessary  to  send  on  two 
extra  coolies,  six  miles  ahead,  with  the  relay  of 
bullocks,  on  account  of  the  elephants  which  stray 
across  the  road  at  night,  and  might  interfere  with 
the  cattle  if  they  had  not  sufficient  protection.  I 
was  also  told  that  there  were  plenty  of  cheeta  and 
elk  about  Sigiri  and  its  neighbourhood. 

We  were  up  betimes  the  following  morning,  and 
I  got  under  way  at  seven,  but  the  light  waggon 
proved  to  be  very  much  the  reverse  and  too  heavy 
for  the  tiny  bullocks  to  trot  with,  and  those  sent 
on  were  the  ordinary  heavy  goers  ;  however,  the 
road  was  in  part  a  mere  track  through  the  thick 
jungle,  and  so  rough  and  circuitous,  on  account  of 
tree  trunks,  that  I  doubt  whether  we  could  have 
trotted  much  even  if  we  had  had  other  kine.    We 


BULLOCK   CARTS  427 

took  three  hours  to  do  the  eleven  miles,  and  a 
pretty  tedious  drive  it  was.  The  road  is  almost 
level  all  the  way,  and  the  forest  is  so  thick  and 
interlaced  overhead  with  branches  that  nothing 
could  be  seen  beyond  a  few  yards  distant. 

The  ordinary  bullock  cart  of  Ceylon  is  a  spring- 
less  affair,  a  mere  platform  on  two  wheels,  with  a 
palmleaf  hood  projecting  beyond  it  fore  and  aft. 
On  it  a   driver  with   taste,   sometimes   hangs  a 


SIGIRI  RISING  OUT  OF  THE  JUNGLE 


flower-pot  or  can,  and  in  it  plants  a  gourd  or  some 
such  plant,  which  trails  all  over  the  hood.  We 
had  nothing  of  that  sort,  however.  The  resthouse- 
keeper  supplied  me  with  a  mattress  and  a  pillow, 
and  if  I  did  not  lie  down  I  had  to  sit  cross-legged 
or  dangle  my  legs  out  at  the  back.  The  "  boy " 
who  accompanied  me  as  guide  and  interpreter 
was  incapable  of  acting  in  either  capacity,  for  he 
had  never  been  to  Sigiri,  and  his  English  vocabu- 
lary was  of  the  most  limited.  He  was  like  a  very 
unattractive  old  woman,  with  a  red  petticoat  and 
grey  hair  in  a  knot  at  the  back.  A  group  of  three 
or  four  huts  are  the  only  human  habitations  to  be 
seen  along  the  route. 


428  CEYLON 

Sigiri  is  an  immense  rock,  400  feet  in  height, 
with  almost  perpendicular  or,  in  fact,  overhanging 
sides  rising  abruptly  out  of  the  plain,  very  much 
in  the  same  way  that  the  Bass  Rock  emerges  above 
and  out  of  the  sea.  In  this  rock-fortress  the  parri- 
cide King  Karyapa  found  asylum  in  the  fifth 
century,  after  obtaining  the  throne  of  Ceylon  by 
the  murder  of  his  father,  Dhatu  Sena.  It  stands 
in  the  heart  of  the  great  central  forest,  and  the 
only  habitation  near  it  is  an  empty  bungalow, 
which  affords  shelter  to  any  one  who  may  wish 
to  stop  there,  but  contains  nothing  whatever  in 
the  form  of  furniture.  A  path  from  it  leads  to 
the  steep  slopes  which  form  the  base  of  the  rock. 
On  them  are  the  remains  of  what  was  once  a  royal 
palace.  An  immense  boulder  has  had  its  top  sliced 
off  to  form  the  floor  of  a  hall,  which  is  still 
surrounded  by  a  roughly-moulded  and  hewn  stone 
cornice.  Here  and  there  are  putlog  holes,  which 
seem  to  imply  a  continuation  in  woodwork,  and  on 
one  side  is  a  higher  rock  furnished  with  incised 
steps  which  lead  to  a  flat  place  on  its  summit, 
with  a  hewn  tank,  about  10  feet  by  5  feet,  for 
the  storage  of  water.  Close  by  I  noticed  a  large 
forest  tree  swaying  about  as  if  blown  by  a  strong 
wind  ;  on  looking  a  second  time  I  saw  that  its 
branches  were  crowded  with  apes  jumping  from 
bough  to  bough,  some  frightened,  as  I  imagined, 
by  our  approach,  some  simply  swaying  the  branches 
for  fun. 

A  scramble  over  loose  stones  and  along  a  narrow 
gutter-like  path  hewn  out  of  the  steep  side  of  the 


SIGIRI 


429 


rock,  then  a  climb  upon  a  bamboo  ladder,  brought 
us  to  a  gallery  along  the  side  of  the  rock  with 
a  high  masonry  balustrade  or  wall  on  the  outside 
and  the  rock  above  projecting  over  head.  This 
gallery  used,  I  believe,  in  former  days  to  wind  in 
spiral  fashion  up  to  the  top  of  the  rock  ;  but  now, 
unfortunately,  it  has  been  broken  down,  and  we 


soon  came  to  an  abrupt  halt,  with  a  deep  drop  in 
front  of  us,  where  the  wall  and  footway  were  broken 
away.  I  had  to  content  myself  with  the  extremely 
beautiful  view  towards  Matale  across  the  dense  sea 
of  jungle  which  surrounds  the  rock. 

Above  this  gallery,  but  only  to  be  reached  by 
rope  ladders,  of  which  we  had  none,  is  a  curious 
cavity  or  pocket  in  the  rock,  with  its  ceiling  covered 
with  frescoes  representing,  I  was  told,  remarkably 


430 


CEYLON 


well-drawn  life-sized  figures.  A  namesake  of  mine 
had  recently  climbed  up  to  this  pocket  and  had 
made  tracings  of  the  frescoes  ;  he  said  the  place  was 
now  the  stronghold  of  swallows  and  hornets,  which 


^««-^».^  — 


<5^ 


^  <^  /^  <^%  <^^^^  5)  ^^  ^  Q 


DEGALDURUWA 


resent  the  intrusion  of  strangers.  At  the  foot  of 
the  rock  is  a  marshy  tank,  the  haunt  of  crocodiles. 
The  drive  back  was  tedious  and  uneventful, 
except  that  in  a  small  forest  village  through  which 
I  passed  I  encountered  an  albino  woman  :  her  hair 
was  light  and  colourless,  and  her  skin  was  much 
freckled,  the  simplicity  of  her  costume  accentuated 


PILGRIMS  431 

the  strangeness  of  her  appearance.  For  the  last 
mile  we  found  the  road  thronged  with  pilgrims 
returning  from  Anuradhapura.  A  highly  pictu- 
resque and  motley  crew,  with  brilliant  garments 
and  bright  red  umbrellas ;  all  the  old  people  were 
in  bullock  carts  and  the  younger  ones  on  foot  ; 
amongst  them  were  many  priests  in  their  orange- 
coloured  robes. 

I  reached  Dambool  at  five,  with  only  just  time 
enough  before  nightfall  to  rush  up  to  the  temple 
again  and  make  a  few  pencil  sketches.  It  was  quite 
dark  when  I  left  the  dim  lights  of  the  temple  and 
began  my  return  walk.  I  soon  found  that  it  was 
hopeless  to  try  and  find  my  way  down  the  steep 
rock,  except  by  a  more  rapid  descent  than  I  cared 
for,  and  I  returned  to  the  temple,  where  I  found  a 
native  sufficiently  intelligent  to  understand  what 
I  wanted,  and  with  him  as  my  guide  and  lighted 
by  a  screw  of  paper  dipped  in  tallow,  which 
smoked  and  smelled  atrociously,  we  made  our  way 
through  the  darkness  and  found  a  man  from  the 
resthouse,  at  the  bottom,  looking  for  me  with  the 
lantern. 

In  the  Trincomalee  bullock  cart  next  morning 
at  seven  we  started  back  to  Matale.  On  the  road  we 
passed  an  elephant  engaged  in  some  agricultural 
affairs.  The  country  was  looking  beautiful,  and  the 
distant  hills  blue  and  ethereal. 

We  breakfasted  at  the  resthouse  at  Matale,  and 
there  Captain  Pirie's  servant  found  us  out.  He 
was  a  beautiful  person,  with  a  pea-green  jacket  and 
a  cream-coloured  turban,  and  had  come  to  Matale 


432 


CEYLON 


to  see  his  little  child,  who  was  ill  with  measles. 
To  be  followed  by  such  a  magnificent  person  threw 
quite  a  halo  of  importance  around  us.  He  saw  us 
off  at  the  station  on  our  way  back  to  the  Pavilion, 


DOORWAY  IN  THE  TEMPLE  OF  DEGALDURUWA 

and  brought  us  a  packet  of  tomatoes  which  he  had 
gathered  in  his  garden. 

In  the  early  morning  of  New  Year's  Day,  we 
joined  a  large  party  in  a  most  delightful  ride.  We 
crossed  the  river  by  the  ferry,  three  horses  at  a 
time,  then  rode  up  a  narrow  path  beside  paddy- 
fields,  amongst  scattered  mud  cottages  and  beneath 
cocoa-nut  palms,  to  the  temple  of  Degalduruwa 
Vihara,  built  in  a  niche  under  a  great  rock,  like 
Dambool  on  a  small  scale.    The  ante-temple  is 


THE    BO-TREE  433 

supported  by  picturesque  octagonal  pillars.  The 
whole  place  in  fact  is  very  picturesque,  and  I 
wished  I  had  had  more  ti^ie  for  a  sketch.  A  jolly 
thick-set  priest  (he  calls  himself  the  incumbent 
priest),  who  spoke  a  little  English,  showed  us 
round,  and  then  took  us  past  his  own  house  to  a 
platform  above  the  rock  where  is  a  good  Dagoba 
and  a  fine  Bo-tree. 

The  Bo-  or  Bodhi-trees,  everywhere  found  grow- 
ing near  Buddhist  temples,  monasteries,  or  Dago- 
bas,  are  peepul  trees  {Ficus  religiosd).  They  are 
especially  venerated  because  Guatama  Sakya  Muni 
acquired  Buddhahood  when  meditating  beneath 
one  at  Buddha-Gaya.  At  Anuradhapura  there 
is  a  Bo-tree  of  special  sanctity.  The  legend  says 
that  Sangmitta,  the  sister  of  Mahinda,  came  to 
Ceylon  with  him  about  b.c.  250  when  he  preached 
Buddhism  to  the  Sinhalese  and,  in  a  golden  vase, 
brought  with  her  a  branch  of  the  sacred  tree  of 
Buddha-Gaya.  This  was  planted  at  Anuradhapura, 
and  the  Buddhists  of  Ceylon  fully  believe  that  the 
identical  tree  still  exists  there.  All  the  other  Bo- 
trees  of  Ceylon  are  said  to  have  been  grown  from  it. 

A  few  days  later  I  started  for  Nuwera  Eliya, 
in  dull  and  rainy  weather,  leaving  Kandy  by  the 
seven  o'clock  train. 

The  line  turns  off  at  Peradeniya,  and  gradually 
rising  passes  through  most  varied  scenery, 
amongst  paddy-fields  and  palm-groves,  through 
dense  jungle,  out  of  one  valley  into  another,  over 
small  passes,  round  hills,  backwards  and  for- 
wards, in  and  out,  until  I  was  quite  confused 
^  31 


434  CEYLON 

as  to  the  direction  of  my  destination.  About 
half  way  a  very  splendid  view  broke  upon  us.  The 
mountains  are  very  fine^  and  bold.  The  train  had 
climbed  high  up  on  the  steep  side  of  one  of  them, 
and  we  looked  down,  to  a  great  depth,  upon  dense 
jungle,  then,  higher,  through  a  wide  gap  in  the 
range,  to  a  far  off  sea  of  low  broken  hills  with  the 


ON   THE   WAY   TO    NUWEKA    ELIYA 


misty  plain  beyond.  If  it  had  been  clear,  I  might 
have  seen  the  sea  itself  still  further  off.  From  time 
to  time,  I  caught  glimpses  of  Adam's  Peak, 
amongst  the  clouds  towering  above  all  its  neigh- 
bours. 

On  all  sides  jungle  was  giving  place  to  planta- 
tion, and  soon  the  whole  poetry  of  the  scene  will 
be  spoiled  by  tea,  but  it  still  retains  some  of  its 
interest. 

I  reached  Nanu  Oya  station,  5291  feet  above 
Kandy,^'  between  12.20  and  i  o'clock,  and  taking 

*  Nuwera  Eliya  is  about  6210  ft.  above  sea  level. 


NUWERA  ELIYA  435 

my  place  in  the  coach  and,  in  a  drizzle,  began  the 
ascent  of  four  miles  to  Nuwera  Eliya,  by  a  well 
engineered  mountain  road,  through  a  densely 
wooded  valley,  reminding  me  of  the  New  Zealand 
bush;  then,  emerging  on  an  upland  valley,  I  reached 
my  destination,  and  found  comfortable  quarters  at 
the  Club.  After  lunch,  though  the  drizzle  had 
turned  to  a  downpour,  I  engaged  a  trap  and  started 


LOOKING   AT  THE   TRAIN 


for  Kandapola,  seven  miles  off,  to  visit  a  plantation 
belonging  to  Mr.  Frederick  Gubbins. 

The  scattered  bungalows  of  Nuwera  Eliya,  with 
their  thatched  and  shingle  roofs  and  whitewashed 
walls  and  chimneys,  surrounded  by  bright  gardens, 
the  dark  foliaged  trees,  the  gorse,  the  low  swampy 
ground,  the  golf  links,  and  the  mist  about  the 
hills  reminded  me  very  much  of  Scotland.  The 
road  I  took  must  be  a  beautiful  one  in  fine 
weather  ;  it  passes  through  a  short,  but  fine  gorge, 
with  a  considerable  waterfall. 

At  the  end  of  six  miles  I  was  brought  to  a  stand- 
still and  told  that  I  must  follow  a  footpath  through 


436  CEYLON 

thick  grass  to  get  to  Kandapola.  It  was  raining  in 
torrents,  and  as  I  did  not  appreciate  the  prospect  of 
the  drive  back  with  wet  legs,  Hooked  about  for  some 
expedient  for  protecting  them :  fortunately  there  were 
two  lonely  shops  [potiques  as  they  call  them  here) 
close  by,  so  I  looked  into  them  to  see  what  I  could 
get  for  extemporised  gaiters.  Nothing  met  my  eye 
but  chillies,  rice,  and  other  grains  and  nuts,  until  at 
last  I  caught  sight  of  a  grass  basket,  stuffed  into  the 
roof  to  keep  the  wet  out.  I  pointed  to  it  and  then 
to  my  legs,  and  presently  a  fairly  clean  basket  was 
produced  and  cut  in  two  ;  my  legs  were  bound  up 
in  it  with  the  aid  of  a  bit  of  coir  rope,  and  I  started 
well  protected  on  my  way.  A  pretty  path  amongst 
rhododendron  bushes  and  through  woods,  mostly 
of  gum  trees,  brought  me  to  Mr.  Gubbins'  bun- 
galow. I  found  him  in  "  the  store,"  and  after  a  long 
and  pleasant  talk  with  him  he  showed  me  over  the 
tea  factory  where  the  tea  was  being  picked.  He 
introduced  me  to  his  wife,  who  gave  me  tea,  and 
he  eventually  escorted  me  back  to  the  high  road 
and  my  dripping  trap. 

The  following  day  I  was  up  at  six,  and  as  the 
weather  was  then  fine,  though  overcast,  I  ordered 
my  trap,  and  before  long  was  on  my  way  to  the 
celebrated  Botanic  Gardens  at  Hakgalla.  We  soon 
drove  into  the  clouds,  and  though  we  got  out  of 
them  again  from  time  to  time,  I  cannot  say  that  I 
saw  the  country  under  the  most'favourable  auspices. 

There  are  great  quantities  of  rhododendrons 
about  Nuwera  Eliya,  all  of  a  deep  crimson  colour, 
which  must  be  most  beautiful  when  they  are  in  full 


HAKGALLA  GARDENS  437 

bloom  in  May.  I  only  saw  a  few  stray  blossoms 
here  and  there.  The  plant  grows  to  the  size  of  a 
considerable  tree  here — from  twenty  to  thirty  feet 
high,  with  rough  gnarled  stems  as  thick  as  a  man's 
body,  but  for  the  most  part  it  is  only  seen  in  the 
familiar  form  of  a  big  bush.  In  the  hedgerows  and 
by  the  roadside  grow  myrtle  and  habrothamnus,the 
fine  trumpet-flower  datura,  cistus,  purple,  red,  and 
white,  a  handsome  big  reed  or  lily  with  a  yellow 
flower,  and  the  splendid  higLode/m  exce/sis,  3.  spikc- 
shaped  lavender  flower  growing  eight  to  ten  feet 
high,  as  freely  as  a  foxglove.  They  say  the  white 
juice  from  it  is  a  strong  poison.  In  the  gullies  were 
quantities  of  tree  ferns.  The  road  from  Nuwera 
Eliya  passes  down  the  valley,  past  the  lake,  and 
through  a  steep  well-wooded  gorge,  with  a  bright 
clear  mountain  stream  flowing  through  it.  The 
Hakgalla  Gardens  are  at  the  mouth  of  this  gorge, 
and  on  the  edge  of  the  high  country  overlooking 
the  lower  hills  and  the  plains  beyond  on  the  east 
side  of  the  island.  It  is  a  glorious  view,  but  I  no 
sooner  had  had  a  glimpse  of  it  when  rolling  clouds 
came  up  and  blotted  it  all  out. 

The  climate  here  is  such  that  all  manner  of 
flowers  and  plants  of  temperate  climates  flourish, 
and,  combined  with  much  natural  vegetation,  form 
the  most  beautiful  garden  imaginable,  though  of  a 
character  absolutely  distinct  from  that  at  Pera- 
deniya,  where  the  vegetation  is  entirely  tropical. 
There  the  majestic  trees  form  one  of  its  most 
striking  features.  Here  the  trees  are  of  no  great 
size,  and  the  smaller  plants  form  the  main  attrac- 


438  CEYLON 

tion.  Peradeniya,  moreover,  is  much  more  extensive 
than  this  garden. 

I  was  shown  round  by  the  head  gardener,  who  is 
a  Sinhalese,  and  noticed  a  great  number  of  Austra- 
lian trees  and  shrubs,  including  the  Melanoxylon 
(leafless  acacia),  the  blue  gum,  and  the  bottle- 
brush,  also  the  black-birch,  and  the  flax  of  New 
Zealand,  a  Bocconia  (John  Crow  bush),  with  very 
fine  foliage,  and  a  good  collection  of  tree  ferns. 

I  returned  in  the  rain  to  breakfast  at  the  Club, 
and  then  went  out,  across  a  corner  of  the  golf  links, 
to  see  the  Queen's  Cottage  (the  summer  residence 
of  the  Governor),  a  rambling  and  picturesque  place, 
surrounded  by  a  garden  bright  with  flowers. 

Two  rickshaws  were  chartered  to  take  me  down 
to  the  station,  one  for  my  baggage  and  the  other  for 
myself;  and  off  I  started,  in  a  drizzle,  having  chosen 
the  least  shaky  of  the  two  conveyances  for  my  ow  n 
person.  I  congratulated  myself  that  I  was  not 
inside  the  one  which  contained  my  effects,  as  I  saw 
it  trundling  along  in  front  of  me  with  one  of  the 
wheels  wobbling  portentously,  and  after  turning 
some  very  sharp  corners  down  hill,  with  a  precipice 
on  my  right,  was  still  more  of  the  same  way  of 
thinking,  when  suddenly  I  heard  a  crunching  sound 
on  my  left,  and  next  moment  I  found  myself  spread 
about  on  the  road,  my  own  left  wheel  having  en- 
tirely collapsed.  I  picked  myself  up,  none  the 
\\  orse,  and  was  thankful  I  had  only  a  mile  to  walk 
to  the  station  and  sufficient  time  to  catch  the  train. 
If  the  smash  had  occurred  a  couple  of  miles  higher 
up  the  road  I  should  have  been  done  for.  The  poor 


THE    BISHOP'S    BUNGALOW 


439 


coolie  looked  somewhat  disconsolate,  but  I  paid 
him  his  fare  and  was  glad  to  think  that  the  machine 
was  not  his  own  property. 

Five  hours' journey  brought  me  back  to  Kandy. 

The  next  day  was  a  sad  one,  for  we  had  to  leave 
our  kind  friends  and  the  delights  of  the  Pavilion 
for  the  sea  and  the  unknown.  As  we  descended 
from  Kandy  we  emerged  from  the  clouds,  and  in 
Colombo  found  ourselves  once  more  in  sunshine. 
The  last  people  we  saw  in  Ceylon  were  the  Bishop 
and  Mrs.  Coplestone,  with  whom  we  breakfasted 
in  their  charming  bungalow,  prettily  situated  in 
a  garden  at  the  far  end  of  the  lake  near  Victoria 
Park. 


THE   BISHOPS   GARDEN,   COLOMBO 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LLST 

OF  SOME  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  EVENTS  MENTIONED 

An  additional  Table  of  Dates  relating  to  the  History  of  Delhi 
will  be  found  on  p.  242 

B.C. 

14C0       Traditional  date  of  the  wars    between    the    Pandavas    and 
Kauravas  (recounted  in  the  Mahabarata  li.c.  240),  and  of 
the  founding  of  Indraput  near  Delhi. 
?  Jain  faith  flourishes  in  India. 

638-543  Sakiya  Muni  preaches  in  the  deer-park  near  Benares. 
258        King  Asoka  spreads  the  Buddhist  faith. 

Earliest  known  Buddhist  sculptures. 
327       Alexander  the  Great  invades  India. 

A.D. 

145  Aja  Pal  founds  Ajmere. 

275  Gwalior  was  founded  by  Kachwaha  Rajputs. 

399  Chinese  Pilgrim  Fo  Hian  visits  India. 

400  Benares  reverts  to  Brahmanism. 

629       Chinese  Pilgrim  Hiuen  Tsiang  visits  India. 
642        Parsis  settle  in  India. 

664        First  incursion  into  India  of  Mohammedans. 
c.Soo       Brahmanic  revival — Caves  of  Elephanta. 

976       Jai  Pal,  Rajput  King  of  Lahore,  defeated  at  Peshawur. 
loi  1-17   Mahmud  of  Ghazni  captures  Thanesar  and  Canouj. 
1090        Sas  Bahu  Temples  at  Gwalior  built. 
1 1 90       Kutub  Minar  commenced. 

1194       Shahab-ud-din    invades    India,    defeats    Prithvi     Raja    at 
Thanesar,  and  conquers  Ajmere,  Canouj,  and  pelhi. 
1225-54  Rajputs  regain  Gwalior — Urwahi  Sculptures. 
1236       Arhai-din-ka-Johmpra  Mosque,  Ajmere. 

3K 


442  CHRONOLOGICAL    LIST 

A.D. 

1469  Nanuk,  founder  of  Sikh  religion,  born  near  Lahore. 

1 50 1  Yusaf  Khan  founds  Mohammedan  kingdom  of  Bijapur. 

1527  Babar  defeats  Rajputs  at  Fatepur  Sikri. 

1556  Akbar  consolidates  the  Mogul  Empire. 

1 58 1  The  Guru  Arjun  compiles  the  Granth. 

1605  Jehangir. 

162 8  Shah  Jehan. 

1630-50  Taj  Mahal  built. 

1657  Shivaji  lays  the  foundation  of  the  Mahratta  power. 

1686  Aurangzeb  conquers  Bijapur. 

East  India  Company  established  on  the  Hooghly. 

1756  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta. 

1757  Battle  of  Plassy. 

1 761  Ahmed  Shah  defeats  the  Mahrattas  at  Paneput. 

I  764  The  Sikhs  gain  the  supremacy  of  the  Punjab. 

1765  Clive  lays  the  foundation  of  the  Indian  Empire  by  claiming 

the  right  to  receive  the  Revenues  of  Bengal,  Behar,  and 

Orissa. 

1802  Ranjit  Sing  seizes  Amritzar. 

1803  Lord  Lake  takes  Agra  and  Delhi. 
181S  Battle  of  Kirkee,  end  of  Mahratta  rule. 

1 819  Lord  Hastings  extends  British  suzerainty  to  Rajputana. 

1823  Bishop  Heber  at  Delhi. 

1 830  Sir  William  Sleeman  commences  operations  against  the  Thugs. 

1845  First  Sikh  War. 

1849  Annexation  of  the  Punjab. 

1857  Mutiny. 

1858  Queen  Victoria  proclaimed  direct  Sovereign  over  all  Indian 

territories. 

1875  Prince  of  Wales  visits  India. 

1896  Plague  in  Bombay  (first  visitation). 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Miss,  336 

Aberdeen,  Lord,  415 

Abu,  Mount,  or  the  "Saint's  Pin- 
nacle," 345 

Adam's  Peak,  Ceylon,  417,  434 

Aden,  3 

Adil  Shah,  Muhammad,  74 

Adil  Shahi  dynasty,  founded  by  Yusaf 
Khan,  69 

Adinath,  founder  of  the  Jains,  212 

Afghans,  the,  231 

Agra,  159-184  ;  Fort,  160,  162,  163 

Ahmad  I.,  Sultan  (Adil  Shahi 
dynasty),  382 

Ahmed  Shah  Abdali,  the  Afghan,  45, 
319 

Ahmedabab,  382,  383 

Aitken,  his  article  on  "  The  Byle  "  in 
Monthly  Review,  250 

Aja  Pal,  the  Chauhan  Rajput,  founder 
of  Ajmere,  344 

Ajit,  350,  351 

Ajmere,  343-361  ;  Lake,  363 

Akalis,  the,  308 

Akbar,  Emperor,  89,  92,  158,  175, 
185,  188,  191,  194,  203,  282,  297, 
319.  347.  348,  356  ;  his  Audience 
Hall  at  Allahabad,  94  ;  his  Kwab- 
ghar  or  "House  of  Dreams,"  at 
Fatehpur  Sikri,  192 ;  King  of 
Delhi,  230,  235,  239,  252  ;  his  palace 
at  Lahore,  289  ;  and  at  Ajmere,  354 

Akharas,ihe,  100,  102 

Akshai  Bar,  the  ever-living  Banyan 
Tree  (Allahabad),  94 


Alakias,  the,  loi 

Alam,  Shah,  89,  348 

Ala-ud-din  Khilji,  130,  253,  254,  2G3 

Ali  AdilShahL,  75,77 

Allahabad,  87-102 

Allnutt,  Mr.,  of  the  Delhi  Brother- 
hood, 259 

Almond  Gardens,  Lahore,  292 

Altamsh,  254,  255,  355 

Alu  Vihara  monastery,  Ceylon,  419 

Alwar,  333-341 

Amballa,  219,  220,  2G7-280 

Amir  Jumla,  238 

Amir  Khan,  350 

Amritzar :  The  Pool  of  Immortality 
285,  286,  305-312 

Ana  Raja,  344 

Ana  Sagar  Lake,  Ajmere,  344,  353 

Anand  Mahal,  "  Palace  of  Delight," 
Bijapur,  82 

Anang  Pal,  247,  2S1 

Andersen,  Hans.  237 

Annapurna  (goddess  of  daily  bread), 
temple  of,  Benares,  133 

Anuradhapura,  Ceylon,  406,  433 

Apollo  Bunder  Quay,  Bombay,  11,  41 

Arabs,  difficulty  of  sketching,  183 

Aravali  Mountains,  Ajmere,  344,  345, 
363 

Archaeology,  Department  of,  197 

Ardagh,  Colonel,  113 

Arhai-din-ka-Johmpra  mosque,  Aj- 
mere, 354 

Arjmand  Banu,  or  Muntazi  Mahal, 
Shah  Jehan's  Persian  wife,  162,  297 


444 

Arjun  Mall,  5th  Sikh  Guru,  2S3,  284. 
292,  307 

Aryans,  the,  324 

Asaf  Khan,  296,  297 

Ashi  Ghat,  Benares.  139 

Asoka,  the  Buddhist  king.  90.  11 1. 
246  ;  Laths  of,  244 

Asra-i-Sharif,  "  Palace  of  the  Hair  of 
the  Noble  One,"  Bijapur.  80 

Atal  Rai.  311 

Auckland,  Lord.  119 

Aurangzeb,  44,  67,  70,  80,  82.  162, 
224, 239-241,  282,  292  ;  his  mosque, 
Badshahi  Musjid,  at  Lahore,  293 

Austin,  of  Bordeaux,  a  French  crafts- 
man at  Agra,  164 

Baba  Atal  Tower,  Golden  Temple, 

Amritzar,  311 
Bab-el-Mandeb,  Straits  of,  2 
Babar,  Emperor,  209,   213,  247,  251, 

252,  264,  282,  347 
Back  Bay,  Bombay,  7 
Badli-ki-Sarai,  Delhi,  220 
Badshahi  Musjid.  Aurangzeb's mosque 

at  Lahore,  293 
Bahmani,  Sultan  Muhammad,  69 
Bairagis,  the.  loi 
Bakhtawar  Singh's  marble  cenotaph 

at  Alwar,  339 
Baniyas,  or  traders,  claim  to  be  true 

Vaisyas,  49 
Bankepore,  125 
Bara  Darri,  the  Lahore,  292 
Barnard,  General  Sir  Harry,  219,220 
Barrackpur,  122 
Bawa-Malang  hill,  7 
Beauchamp,  Sir  R. ,  19 
Benares,  129-145 
Benett,   Mr.,   Permanent   Secretary, 

Allahabad,  89 
Bengal,  106,  117 

Benson,  Father,  of  Cowley,  102, 172, 173 
Beresford,  Lord  WilHam,  113 
Bernier,  M.,  a  French  physician  at 

Agra,  159.  21S,  235,236,  239,  297 


INDEX 


Bhairava,  the  god,  18 

Bheem  Singh,  Raja  of  Jodhpur.  349 

Bheesti,  water-carrier,  47 

Bhendi  bazaar,  Bombay,  32 

Bhils,  the,  of  the  Vindhya  Mountains. 

324.  334  ^    ^ 

Bhisma,  the  San    Sebastian  of  the 

Mahabharata,  10 1 
Bhor  Ghat,  8 
Bibi  Garhand  Well.   Cawnpore,  153, 

157 
Bickersteth,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Japan,  258 
Bidar,  State  of.  69 
Biddulph,   Colonel    John,   343,   352. 

353.  363.  378.  379.  382 
Biddulph,  Mrs.,  343,  361,379,  3^2 
Bijapur,  65-85 
Bir  Bal,  the  Akbar's  Prime  Minister, 

194 
Bisheshwar  or  Shiva,  the  poison  god, 

131 
Biskra,  65 
Bitter  Lakes,  2 
Bo-  or  Bodhi-tree,  Ceylon,  433 
Bombay,  7-39 

Botanical  Gardens,  Calcutta,  118 
Brahm,  the  supreme  spirit,  53 
Brahma,  the  god,  the  creator,  17,  18, 

53,54 

Brahmans,  49 ;  the  Mahratta,  43,  44 ; 
their  religion,  57,  58  ;  bad  reputa- 
tion of  the  Poona,  59 ;  trained  in 
astrology  at  Benares,  139 

Brindisi,  2 

Brown,  Gerald,  Sir  Arthur  Have- 
lock's  Secretary,  418 

Bubujee  Khanum,  Queen,  her  defence 
of  the  Bijapur  citadel,  79 

Buddha,  religion  of,  in  ;  Hindus 
destroy  temple  of,  156;  his  three 
seated  attitudes,  407,  408  (see  also 
Sakya  Muni) 

Buddhists,    in    Ceylon,    395 ;     the 
sacred  Bo-tree,  433 

Buland  Darwaza.  "  Gate  of  Victory,  " 
Fatehpur  Sikri.  190 


INDEX 


445 


Bullock-cart,   ii,   15,  250;   Jodhpur, 

379  ;  Ceylon,  426,  427 
Burdvvan,  Maharaja  of,  120 
Burgess,  Dr.  James,  157 
Burke,  Edmund,  114 
Burn-Murdoch,    R.E„   Colonel    and 

Mrs.,  15,  34,  88 
Burning  Ghat,  Benares,  144 
Byculla,  Bombay,  29 


Cairo,  2 

Calcutta,  103-128 

Cambridge    .Brotherhood,     the,     in 

Delhi,  228 ;  258-260 
Cameron,     Hardinge,     Mayor      of 

Colombo,  413-416 
Campbell,  Sir  Colin,  150 
Canning,  Lord  and  Lady,   116,  122, 

123,  197 
Canning  Town, or  Modern  Allahabad, 

90 
Canouj,  kingdom  of,  365 
Carey,  James,  Baptist  Missionary  at 

Serampore,  124 
Caste,   rules  and  marks  of,   50,  51, 

325-329 
Cawnpore,  151-158 
Ceylon.  5,  6, 385-439 
Chandernagore,  French  settlement  of, 

120,  123 
Chandni  Chauk,  Delhi,  226 
Chandra,  the  moon  god,  18 
C/iaprassi,  badge-bearer,  48 
Charles  IL,  8 
Charnock,  Job,  104 
Chatter  Booj,  376 
Chauhan  Rajput  clan,  346,  365 
Chawl,  or  lodging-house,  37 
Chihh,  Sheikh  ,  his  tomb  at  Thanesar, 

320 
Chinsurah,  120 
Christianity,  its  progress  in  India,  62  ; 

contrasted  with  Hinduism,  155 
Christopher,  Captain,  400,  416 
City  Palace,  Alwar,  33S,  339 


Clarke,   R.,    Deputy    Commissioner, 

Delhi,  220 
Clark's  Hotel,  Benares,  129 
Clewes,  Captain,  41,  42,  51 
Clive,  Lord,  106,  114 
Colaba  Point,  Bombay,  7 
Colombo,  4,  385-386 
Colvin,  Sir  Auckland,  89 
Coplestone,  Dr. ,  Bishop  of  Colombo, 

439 
Coryat,  Thomas,  354 
Cousen's  book  on  India,  66 
Cow  Temple,  Benares,  133 
Craftsmen,  native  Indian,  35 
Crawford  Market,  Bombay,  12,  29 
Crete,  2 

Crocodiles  at  Ajmere,  353 
Cunningham,  Colonel  D.  D.,354,  355 
Cunningham,  General,  197 
Curzon,  Lord,  ix.,  197 


Dacoits,  136^  137 

Dagoba,  the,  in  Ceylon,  404-406 

Dalada    or    Sacred    Tooth    Temple, 

Ceylon,  392-394 
Dalhousie,  Lord,  115 
Dambool    rock-cut  temples,   Ceylon, 

7,  423.  424 
Danish  settlement  of  Serampore,  120, 

123 
Dara  Shikoh,    Aurangzeb's  brother, 

293 
Dargah,  of  Nizam-ud-din,  Delhi,  263- 

265  ;  of  Kwhajah  Sahib  Mohin-ud- 

din,  Ajmere,  355-361 
Daulat  Bagh,  Ajmere,  354 
Deccan  plateau,  8,  42 
Degalduruwa  Vihara  temple,  Ceylon, 

430-432 
Delhi.     217-241  ;     Palace,     229-236, 

239  ;  neighbourhood  of,  243-266 
Delhi  Brotherhood,  the,  228,  258-260 
Delhi  Gate,  Agra,  164 
Delwar  Khan,  176,  179 
Deo  Prayag,  96 


446 


INDEX 


Deutsch,  Leo,  264 

Devi,     Durga,     Kali,     or     Parbati, 

Shiva's  wife,  53,  55,  56,  134,  136- 

138 
Dhan  Mandi,  wheat  market,  Jodhpur, 

376 
Dhava  Raja,  253 
Dkobi,  washerman,  47 
Dhuleep  Singh,  Maharaja,  286 
Dilhu  Raja,  246 
Din   Panah  Fort,   or  Purana    Kila, 

Delhi,  247 
Doab,  the,  89 
Docks,  Bombay,  29 
Dufferin,  Lady,  338 
Dufferin,  Lord,  424 
Dundas  of  Arniston,  Miss,  275 
Durga,    Pali,    or    Parbati,     Shiva's 

wife.  53,  55,  56.  134.  136-138 
Durga,  Temple  of,  Benares,  134,  138 
Durga-puja,  Hindu  religious  festival, 

138 
Dtirwan,  doorkeeper,  48 
Durzi,  tailor.  48 
Dutch,  and  Chinsurah,  120 


East  India  Bill,  Pitt's,  114  ;  Lord 

Stanley's,  116 
East  India  Company,  8,  90,  104,  106, 

114-116,  120,  162,  232,  286 
Eden  Garden,  Calcutta,  119 
Edward  VII.,  King  (then  Prince  of 

Wales),  238 
Egypt,  2 

Ekka,  the,  145,  173,  316 
Elephanta,  caves  of,  17 
Elgin,  Lord,  197 
Ellenborough,  Lord,  116 
Elphinstone,  Mountstuart,  46,  70 
Elwin,  The  Rev.  Whitwell,   at    one 

time  Editor  of  Quarterly  Review,  60 


Fakirs,  99-101 

Fateh  Jung's  Tomb,  Alwar,  340 


Fatehpur  Sikri :  the  Windsor  of  the 

Great  Mogul,  158,  185-198 
Fergusson,  James,  History  of  Indian 

and  Eastern  Architecture,  15,  75,  158, 

170,  190,  194,  197,  208 
Fergusson,  Sir  James,  19 
Finch,  William,  257, 282 
Firoz  Shah  Tughlak,  219,  227,  243, 

244,  251,  252,  254,  256,  257,  264 
Firozabad,  244 
Fo-Hian,  Chinese  Buddhist  pilgrim, 

281 
Forrest,  Professor,  103,  114,  115,  221 
Eraser,  William,  murdered  at  Delhi, 

228 
French,  at  Chandernagore,  120,  123 
French,  Bishop,  of  Lahore,  227,  259, 

283 
Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  14,  34,  58,  70,  258 
Furse,  R.H.A.,  D.S.O.,  Captain,  113, 

149.  275 

Gadaladenya,  temple  of,  Ceylon, 
406,  407 

Gaekwars,  the,  45 

Gagan  Mahal,  "Hall  of  Audience," 
Bijapur,  82 

Galangolla,  Buddhist  temple  of 
Ceylon,  403 

Ganesh,  Shiva's  son,  elephant- 
headed  god  of  good  luck,  18,  53, 
55-57.  132 

Ganges  river,  18,  8g.  96,  97,  129,  130, 
139-145 

Gangotri,  96 

Garden  Reach,  Calcutta,  118 

Garikdasias,  the,  loi 

Gautamas,  dynasty  of  the,  246 

Gebel  Attakah,  2 

Gehlots,  Rajput  clan,  346 

Ghaggar  river,  270,  317 

Ghats,  the,  41 

Ghaus,  Muhammad,  203 

Ghazni.  dynasty,  253  ;  Mahmud  of, 
346 

Gibraltar,  i 


INDEX 


447 


Gladstone,  Sir  John,  19 
Gladstone,  W.  E.,  415 
Goa,  Portuguese  Archbishop  of,  393 
Gol  Gumbaz,  "  Round  Dome,"  Bija- 

pur,  66,  74-77 
Golden  Temple,   Benares,    131,    132, 

139  ;  Amritzar,  305-312 
Gordon,  General,  Military  Secretary 

to  Embassy  at  Teheran,  113 
Gordon,  Sir  Arthur  (Lord  Stanmore), 

Governor  of  Ceylon,  388,  401,  402, 

411,  414-416,  420 
Govind,  Sikh  Guru,  285,  310 
Grand  Oriental  Hotel,  Colombo,  387 
Grand  Trunk  road,  India,  268,  313 
Granth,  the  Sikh  sacred  book,  283, 

284,  309,  310 
Gubbins,  Frederick,  435,  436 
Gujari  Palace,  Gwalior,  204 
Gurus,  Sikh,  283-285 
Gutab  Sagar,  Jodhpur,  377 
Gwalior  :  Sindhia's  Capital,  199-215  ; 

Fort,  199,  203,  206  ;  Palace,  207 


Hakgalla     Botanical     Gardens, 

Ceylon,  436,  437 
Hakkery,  or  bullock-cart,  250 
Hanger inkette,  Ceylon,  418 
Hans  Raj,  376 
Hanson,  Mrs.  Arthur,  27 
Hanuman,  the  monkey  god,  53,  55 
Hardwar,  56,  96 
Hastings,  Lord,  351 
Hathi  Pol,  or  Elephant  Gate,  Fateh- 

pur  Sikri,  188  ;  GwaHor  Fort,  206 
Havelock,  General,  150 
Havelock,  Lady,  417 
Havelock,  Sir  Arthur,  418 
Hazuri  Bagh,  Lahore,  292 
Heber,  Bishop,  Journal,  62,  223,  230, 

231,  265 
Hill's  Hotel,  Lucknow,  148 
Hina-Yana,  the  Lesser  Vehicle  of  the 

Buddhist  Scriptures,  395 
Hindu  Kush,  217 


"  Hindu  pani,"  327 

Hindus,  their  dress,  22 ;  distinctive 
marks,  24  ;  their  caste  system,  48, 
325-329  ;  their  belief,  54,  58  ;  wor- 
ship the  Malik-i-Maidan,  Bijapur, 
80;  their  veneration  for  the  Ganges, 
89  ;  Prayag,  their  popular  place  of 
pilgrimage  at  Allahabad,  90 ;  in 
the  grip  of  ceremonial  ritual,  143 ; 
contrasted  with  Christians,  154- 
156 ;  destroy  Buddhist  temples,  196; 
their  religion  irreconcilable  with 
Mohammedanism,  228  ;  Thanesar 
the  cradle  of  their  race,  313-331  ; 
their  Sacred  Tank  at  Thanesar, 
320-322 

Hiouen  Thsang,  Chinese  Buddhist, 
95,  281 

Hodson's  Horse,  262 

Holkar,  Maharaja,  45,  46,  62,  219, 
348. 351 

Holmes,  History  of  the  Mutiny ,  149, 152 

Home,  Lieutenant,  221 

Hooghly  river,  105,  107,  120,  125 

Hotgi  Junction,  65 

Hubner,  Baron,  218 

Humayun,  Baber's  son,  252 ;  his 
tomb  near  Delhi,  261,  262 


Ibrahim  II.  (Adil  Shahi  dynasty),  74, 

82,83 
Ibrahim  Roza,  Bijapur,  74,  83 
Idar,  near  Ahmedabad,  53 
Imad-ud-din   Gargastani,    Khojah,  a 

Persian  merchant,  68,  69 
Indian  Ocean,  3 
Indra,  the  god,  18,  318 
Indraput,  246,  247 
Ionian  Islands,  2,  415 
Itarsi  Junction,  88 
Itimad-ud-Daulah's  tomb,  Agra,  179 


Jagganath,  96 

Jai  Pal,  Rajput  king  of  Lahore,  281 


448 


INDEX 


Jai  Singh's  Observatory,  Benares,  139 
Jain  rock-carvings,  Gvvalior,  200,  205 
Jain  Tirthankers,  209,  211,212 
Jains,  the,  211,213;  the  great  temple- 
builders  of  India,  212 
James  I.,  92,  158,  290,  354 
Jat  Rana  of  Gohad,  200 
Jats,  the,  315 

Jehan,  Emperor,  Shah,  93,  158-163. 
169. 172, 175,  21S, 229,  232,  238,  265, 
282, 291, 293,  297,  348,  352,  356  ;  his 
fort  at  Delhi,  222 
Jehangir,  Emperor,  02,  93,  158,  179, 
194,  282,  290-292,  296,  297,  348, 
354,  357 
Jehanira,  Shah  Jehan's  daughter,  162, 

172,  265 
Jervis,  Sir  John  Jervis  White,  276 
Jervois,  Captain,  The  Hon.  St.  Leger, 

19 

Jesuits,  175 

Jeswant  Singh,  Maraja  of  Jodhpur, 

368,  380 
Jhansi,  the  Rani  of,  200 
Jodha, 365 

Jodhbai.  Akbar's  wife,  348 
Jodhpur,  or  Marwar,  350,  363-383  ; 

Fort,  367,  368 
Johar  Sacrifice,  the,  207 
Jones,  Sir  John,  232 
Juggut  Singh,  of  Jeypore,  343 
Jumla,  Amir,  238 
Jumma  Musjid,   Bijapur,    77  ;    Agra 

161,  171,  172;  Delhi,  222-224,  226 ; 

Ahmedabad,  382 
Jumna  river,  18,  89,  95,  162,  199,  219, 

222,  268  ;  canals,  227 


Kachawa,  Rajput  clan,  199,  346 
Kalan   Musjid,     "  Black     Mosque," 

Delhi,  243-245 
Kali,  Durga,  Devi,  or  Parbati,  Shiva's 

wife,  55,  56 
Kalighat,  105 
Kalka,  269,  270 


Kandapola,  Ceylon,  436 
Kandy,  389,  396,  ^39;  kings  of,  410,  424 
A'auphattis,  loi 
Karam  Palace,  Gwalior,  208 
Kartikkeya,  god  of  war,  Shiva's  six- 
headed  son,  53,  55 
Kasauli,  269 

Kashmere  Gate,  Delhi,  221 
Kauravas,  the,  317,  318 
Keith,  Major,  210 
Kellner,  218 

IChadakwazla,  artificial  lake  of,  52,  63 
Khan,  Amir,  350 

Khan  Muhammad's  tomb,  Bijapur,  72 
Khansama,  head-man,  46 
Khidmatgar,  man-servant,  &c.,  47 
Khojah   Imad-ud-din    Gargastani,    a 

Persian  merchant,  68,  69 
Khusru,   Prince,    Akbar's    grandson, 

92,  93.  264, 265,  290, 348 
Khusru  Bagh,  Allahabad,  92 
Khwabghar,  or  "House  of  Dreams," 
Akbar's     sleeping     apartment     at 
Fatehpur  Sikri,  192  ;  Jehangir' s  at 
Lahore,  291 
King  and  Co.,  10 
Kirkee,  battle  of,  46,  52,  57 
Kishna  Komari,  Princess,  349.  350 
Knox,  Mrs.,  275 
Koh-i-noor,  231,  238,  287 
Kohls,  in  the  Central  Provinces,  324 
Krishna,  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  56 
Kshatriyas,  or  soldiers-caste,  49 
Kurakshetra  plain,  317 
Kurnool,  324 

Kutub-ud-din,  200,  253,  346 
Kutub  Minar,  Delhi,  247-249,  252-254 


Lahore,  281-303  ;  Fort,  289 
Lahore  Gate,  Delhi,  229 
Lake,  Lord,  162,  219,  230,  348 
Lakshmi,  Vishnu's  wife,  55,  56 
Lai  Musjid,  Thanesar,  320 
Lanka  Telika  temple,  Ceylon.  407 
Lashkar,  the,  Gwalior.  201,  213.  215 


INDEX 


449 


Laths  of  Asoka,  the,  244 

Lawrence,  Lord,  221,  286,   287,  314, 

327.  330,  331 
Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  149,  150 
Lawrie,  Judge,  411 
Lefroy,  Mr.,  of  the  Delhi   Brother 

hood,  259 
Liddell,   Mr.,    Sir  Arthur    Gordon's 

Secretary,  400 
Lobo,  John,  a  "Goa  Boy,"  author's 

servant,  10,  63,  151,  213,  278 
Loch,  Major,  366,  376,  378 
Lockhart,   Colonel  and  Mrs.    Elliot, 

275 
Lodi  Sultans,  the,  251 
Lota,  a  spherical  wide-mouthed  vessel, 

133 
Lucknow,  148-151 
Ludlow  Castle,  Delhi,  221 
Luni  river,  344,  363 
Lyall,  Sir  Alfred,  158,  326 
Lyall,  Sir  James,  280 


Macdonald,  Angus,  336,  340,  341 
Mahabaleshwa  hill-station,  52 
Mahabharata,  the,  246 
Mahadeo,  a  name  of  Shiva,  56,  133 
Maharashtra,  "  the  great  Proviijce," 

42 
Mahavira,  the  last  of  the  Tirthankers, 

211,  212 
Mahawelli  Gangha  river,  Ceylon,  390, 

411 
Maha-Yana,    the    Greater    Vehicle, 

Buddhist  scriptures,  395 
Mahidpur,  battle  of,  46 
Mahinda,  Asoka's  son,  395,  433 
Mahmud  of  Ghazni,  346 
Mahmud  of  Ghor,  or  Shahab-ud-din, 

89,  253,  282,  319,  344,  346,  365 
Mahrattas,  the,  8,  42-46,  89,  231,319, 

348  ;  their  raids,  45  ;  and  war,  46 
Maidan,  the,  Allahabad,  91  ;  Calcutta, 

103,  104,  iiS 
Makka  Musjid,  Bijapur,  83 


Malabar    Coast,    4,    5  ;    Court,   37 ; 

Hill,  15,  39  ;  Point,  7,  13.  15.  19 
Malcolm,  Sir  John,  46 
Mali,  gardener,  48 
Malik  Karim-ud-din  mosque,  Bijapur, 

83 
Malik-i-Maidan      ("  King      of      the 

Plain  "),  big  gun,  Bijapur,  80 
Malta,  I 

Man  Mandir  Ghat,  Benares,  139 
Man  Singh,  palace  of,  Gwalior,  200, 

205,  207 
Mandor,  365 
Manohar  Nath,  a  Hindu  Saint,  tomb 

of.  357 
Marochetti,  Baron,  154 
Marshman,     Baptist    missionary     at 

Serampore,  124 
Martyn,  Harry,  157 
Marwar,  or  Jodhpur,  350,  363-383 
Massacre  GBkt,  Cawnpore,   153,  154 
Matale,  Ceylon,  419,  431 
Maun  Sing,  Raja  of  Jodhpur,  349 
Maurice,  F.  D.,  225 
May,  Colonel,  148 
Meerut,  219 

Mehtar  Mahal,  Bijapur,  78 
Mela,  at  Allahabad,  95-102 
Mercer,  Captain,  275 
Mesu,  Mount,  318 
Milk  in  India,  274 
Milton,  John,  252 
Mina  Bazaar,  Agra,  163 
Minas,  the,  334 
Miriam,  Jehangir's  mother,  Akbar's 

wife,  194,  348 
Missionaries,    their     experience     in 

Poona,  61 
Mogul  dynasty,   founded  by  Baber, 

252 
Mogul  Empire,  Agra  the  centre  of,  159 
Mogul  Serai  Station,  129 
Mohammedan  religion,  225,  357,  358  ; 

irreconcilable  with  Hinduism,  228 
Mohin-ud-din,     Kwajah     Sahib,    his 

tomb  at  Ajmere,  355 

3L 


450 


INDEX 


Moti  Musjid,  "  Pearl  Mosque,"  Agra, 

170  ;  Delhi.  233  ;  Lahore,  291 
Muhammad  Bahmani,  Sultan,  69 
Muhammad  Tughlak,  251 
Muntazi  Mahal,  or  Arjmand  Banu, 

Shah    Jehan's    Persian   wife,  162, 

297 
Murad,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  68 
Musafir  Khana,  at  Gwalior,  202 
Mutto  river,  50 
Muttra  Road,   the  Appian   Way   of 

Agra,  176 


Nadir  Shah,  230,  287,  319 

Nagina     Musjid,     "Toy     Mosque," 

Agra,  162,  163 
Nairn,  Mrs.,  275 
Nak  Kashi  work,  289,  297,  320 
Nana  Sahib,  46,  152-154 
Nanak,  founder  of  Sikhs,  283-285 
Nandi,  or  Sacred  Bull,  18,  131 
Nanu  Oya  station,  Ceylon,  434 
Napier  of  Magdala,  Lord,  200,  219 
Naubat  Khana,  Delhi,  236 
Nawab  of  Oude,  90 
Nedou's  Hotel,  Lahore,  288 
Nerbudda  river,  199 
Nicholson,  John,  221 
Nirmalas,  the,  loi 
Nirvana,  no,  iii,  130 
Nizam-ud-din's  Dargah,  Delhi,  263- 

265 
Noor  Jehan,  158,  179,  296,  297 
Noyes,  Major,  276 
Nuwera  Eliya,  Ceylon,  435-437 


Oakley,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Herbert,  418 
Orcagna,  his  pictures  of  the  mouth 

of  Hell,  80 
Orpheus  Mosaic,  Delhi  Palace,  196, 

232 
Oude,  Nawabs  and  Kings  of,  148 


Pachisi  Court,  Fatehpur  Sikri,  194 

Paget  Park,  Amballa,  272 

Pallekelly,  Ceylon,  397 

Palmerston,  Lord,  116 

Panch  Mahal,  Fatehpur  Sikri,  192 

Pandavas,  the,  246,  268,  317-319 

Paniput,  battle  of,  45,  252,  282,  319 

Parasnath,  statue  of,  Gwalior,  212 

Parbati,  Durga,  Kali,  &c.,  Shiva's 
wife,  18.  53,  55 

Parbati  Lake  and  Hill,  51-53 

Parell,  19 

Parsis,  their  dress,  22,  26 ;  their 
Towers  of  Silence,  24-26 ;  perse- 
cuted by  Mohammedans,  26  ;  their 
religion,  27,  28 

Pathan  tombs,  196  ;  conquerors,  253 

Paul,  Emperor  of  Russia,  261 

Paulet,  Colonel,  378 

Peacock  Throne,  Delhi,  231-233,  238 

Pennefather,  LL.D.,  F.W.,  117,  165 

Peradeniya,  Ceylon,  389,  413,  433; 
Botanical  Gardens  of,  390 

Perim,  2 

Perkins,  Sir  .(Eneas,  in  command  of 
Lucknow  district,  148 

Peshwa  of  Poona,  the,  57 

Pindaris  of  Rajputana,  46,  349,  351 

Piri^,  Captain,  417-419,  431 

Pitt's  East  India  Bill,  114 

Plague,  at  Bombay,  38,  39  ;  in  the 
Punjab,  39.315 

Pollock,  Miss,  311 

Poona,  41-63 

Portuguese,  8, 120  ;  missionaries,  290 

Poshkara,  or  Pokhar,  near  Ajmere,  53 

Pottery,  Bombay,  34 

Prayag,  place  of  Hindu  pilgrimage  a 

Allahabad,  90 
Pretyman,  General,  159,  173 
Prison  diet,  Sinhalese,  425 

Prithvi  Raja,  the  Rajput  ruler,  253, 
319.  344.  346.  356 

Punjab,  the,  220,  221  ;  plague  in  the, 
39.  315;  conquered  by  the  Sikhs, 
285 


INDEX 


451 


Punkah-wala,  j^S 
Purtab  Singh,  378,  379 
Pushkar  Lake,  353 


Queen's  Hotel,  Kandy,  389 
Queen's  House,  Colombo,  415 


Rahtores,  Rajput  clan,  346,  365. 
367-369 

Rajistan,  334,  347 

Rajputana,  46,  246,  333,  334,  348,  551 

Rajputs,  45,  49,  333,  334;  their  clans, 
346-350 ;  their  strict  marriage  laws, 
372-374  ;  their  bridal  feuds,  375 

Ram  Das,  4th  Sikh  Guru,  307 

Rama,  an  incarnation  of  Vishnu, 
55.56 

Ramsay,  Dr.,  326 

Rana  Sanga  of  Oodeypore,  chief  of 
Sesodia  clan,  347 

Rana  Umra  Singh,  the  last  Rajput 
chief,  354 

Ranjit  Singh,  282,  286,  287,  292,  307 

Rao,  Sir  Dinkar,  200 

Rao  Rimmull,  Raja,  365 

Ravi  river,  273,  292,  295 

Red  Sea,  2 

Rhatamahatma,  head  of  Ceylon 
district,  408 

Rhodes,  Colonel  F.,  19 

Ridge,  the,  Delhi,  220 

Roberts,  Lord,  113,  152,  219 

Roe,  Sir  Thomas,  James  I.  's  ambas- 
sador, 92,  158,  179,  290,  354 

Rose,  Sir  Hugh,  200 

Rousselet,  M.,  the  French  traveller, 
209,  211 

Rudolph  IL,  Emperor,  391 


Sadhus,  the,  loi 

Safdar  Jang's  mausoleum,  near  Delhi, 

251 
Saftar  Khan,  79 


Sagar,  96 

Sakya  Muni,  his  doctrine  of  Nirvana, 

no.  Ill,  130,  246.  301,  395,  433  ; 

his  teacher  Mahavira,  211 
Salim  Chisti,  190,  357 
Salkeld,  Lieutenant,  221 
Salsette,  Island  of,  8 
Saman  Burj,  "Jasmin  Tower,"  Agra. 

160,  163 
Sanga,  Rana,  of  Oodeypore,  347 
Sangmitta,  433 

Santals,  in  Lower  Bengal,  324 
Sarasvati,  Brahma's  wife,  55,  56 
Saraswati  river,  18,  95,  96,  317,  321 
Sarnath,  130 

Sas  Bahu  temples,  Gwalior,  209 
Sat  Manjli, "  Palace  of  Seven  Storeys, ' ' 

Bijapur,  78 
Satara  hills,  52 

Sati  Chaura  Gate.  Cawnpore,  153 
School  of  Art,  Bombay,  35 
Scobell,  Sir  Andrew,  113 
Serampore,  120,  124 
Sesodia,  Rajput  clan,  346-348,  364 
Seths,  the,  native  bankers  at  Muttra, 

176 
Shah  Jehan,   Emperor,  93,   158-163, 

169,   172,   175,   218,   229,   232,  238, 

265,  282,   291,   293,  297,  348,  352, 

356  ;    his  fort  at  Delhi,  222 
Shah    Jehanabad,    modern    city   of 

Delhi,  214,  244 
Shahabad,  316 
Shahab-ud-din,  or  Mahmud  of  Ghor, 

89,  253,  282,  319,  344.  346,  365 
Shahdera,  292,  294,  296,  297 
Shahpur  Gate,  Bijapur,  80,  83 
Shalimar,  302 
I      Shams-ud-din,  Nawab,  227 
Sher  Afgan,  297 
Sher  Shah,  219,  247,  248,  252 
Sherbatov,  Prince  and  Princess,  19 
Shish  Mahal,  "Palace  of  Mirrors," 

Lahore,  291 
Shiva,  the  Destroyer  and  Re-Creator, 
i  17,  18,  23,  50,  53,  131,  132 


452 


INDEX 


Shivaji,  44 

Sholapur  station,  65 

Shore,  Major,  275 

Sidi  Said's  mosque,  Ahmedabad,  383 

Sigiri  rock- fort,  Ceylon,  426-429 

Sikandra,  174,  175 

Sikhs,  282-286;  Amritzar  the  re- 
ligious headquarters  of,  306,  307 

Sinai,  Mount,  3 

Sindhia,  Maharaja,  45,  46,  200,  201, 
213,  348.  350.  351 

Sindhia,  Maharaja  Sir  Madho  Rao, 
201 

Singhgarh,  rock  of,  51 

Sinhalese  prison  diet,  425 

Sleeman,  Sir  William,  137,  357 

Smith,  E  W.,  archaeologist  and 
architect,  188-190,  195 

Smith,  LL.D,,  George,  124 

Smith,  Leslie,  Divisional  Judge  of 
Amballa  District,  267,  313 

S.P.G.,  at  Cawnpore,  157 

Solaukhya,  Rajput  clan,  346 

Soojah,  Shah,  287 

Spratt,  R.A.,  Major  (now  Colonel 
Spratt  Bowring),  46,51, 59,64,  66,  68 

Stephen,  Carr,  243 

Stevens,  F.  W.,  of  the  G.I. P.,  14 

Sudras,  or  servants-caste,  49 

Suez  Canal,  2 

Sumatra,  Island  of,  120 

Sunyasis,  the,  or  devotees,  loi 

Surya,  god  of  the  sun,  53 

Sutlej  river,  268,  283 


Tait,  Captain,  336 

Taj  Mahal,  Agra,  162,  165-169 

Talati  Mai,  Jodhpur,  377 

Tank,  Sacred,  Thanesar,  320-322 

Taraghur  fort,  Ajmere,  344,  346 

Tavernier,     French      traveller     and 

jeweller  at  Agra,  169 
Taylor,  Meadows,  on  Bijapur,  85 
Teli  Ka  Mandir,  "  Oilman's  Temple," 

Gv/alior,  209 


Terry,  George,  84 

Thanesar :  Cradle  of  the  Hindu  Race, 

313-331 
Thornhill,  Mark,  176-178 
Thugs,  136,  137 
Timur,  or  Tamerlane,  251,  282 
Tirthankers,  Jain,  209,  211,  212 
Tod,   Colonel,  Annals   of   Rajpittana, 

345.  346.  350. 370 
Tooth,   Temple  of  the,   or    Dalada, 

Ceylon,  392-394?  4" 
Toramana,  199 
Touar  Rajputs,  200 
Towers  of  Silence,  24-26.  28 
Trade-castes,  49 
Tughlak  Sultans,  the,  257 
Tughlakabad,  256,  257 
Tytler,  Mr.,  397 


Udai  Singh,  of  Jodhpur,  348 

Umra  Singh,  Rana,  the  last  Rajput 

chief,  354 
Urwahi  valley,  210 


Vaisyas,  agriculturists-casre,  49 

Victoria  Station,  Bombay,  12 

Vikram  Palace,  Gwalior,  208 

Vindhya  Mountains,  324 

Visala  Tal  Lake,  Ajmere,  346 

Visaldeo,  346 

Vishnu,  the  Preserver,  17,  18,  50,  53, 

54,   59 ;  incarnate  in  the  form   of 

Buddha,  56 
Vizir  Khan's  mosque,  Lahore,  298 
Vollar,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  397,  398 


Walkeshwar,   temple  of    Shiva  at 

Malabar  Point,  23 
Wallich,  Dr.,  118 
Wantage  Sisters,  in  Poona,  61 
Watson's  Hotel,  Bombay,  88 
Watts,  G.  F.,  his  "  Dying  Warrior," 

27 


INDEX 


453 


Way,  Sir   Samuel,  Chief  Justice   of 

South  Australia,  117,  170 
Wellesley,  Lord,  112,  348 
Westcott,  Bishop,  157 
Western  Ghats,  The,  6,  42 
Wheeler,  Sir  Hugh,  152 
Williams,  Mr.,  413,  416 
Williams,  Sir  Monier,   48,    283 ;   on 

worship  of  Vishnu,  56 
Willoughby,  Lieutenant,  221 
Wilmot,  Captain  Eardley,  275 
Wilson,  General  Archdale,  219 


Winter,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  258 
Wordsworth,  W.,  Tintern  Abbey.  284 

Yacht  Club,  Bombay,  11 

Yogis,  the,  23,  24,  99-101 

Yule,  Colonel,  153 

Yusaf  Khan,  Sultan  of  Bijapur,  67-69 

Zamzamah,   the  green   bronze   gun, 

Lahore,  303 
Zend  Avesta,  the,  27 
Zoological  Gardens,  Calcutta,  117,  irS 


Printed  by  Bali.antv.ne 


&'  Co.  LiM 
,  London 


